Gotta Smash 'em All!: A HulkPokemon crossover
by curtjr127
Summary: Bruce Banner is transported to a strange world as punishment for the crimes and destruction he caused as his alter ego. He encounters creatures called Pokemon and meets two trainers who teach him about them. Will Banner ever go back home or is he stuck here forever?
1. Bruce's Trial and Transportation

This is a crossover of the Incredible Hulk and Pokemon. I do not own both of these, not the characters or the media. You wouldn't think this is a crossover until you read the second chapter.

* * *

An automatic door opens and a man, tall and muscular in appearance, and a woman wearing dark blue jumpsuit/uniforms walk down a hallway, looking straight with stone-faced expressions. They saunter past four rows of steel doors; they stop at the fifth row and turn their heads to face a door on the right side. The man operates the fingerprint and retinal scanners and presses a five-digit code on the number pad on the metal doorway. The woman uses and swipes a plastic card into the door's keycard lock. It opens and in the room is a slender Caucasian man, 5' 8", late 30s, with short brown hair wearing a navy blue prison uniform sitting on a bench across from the door with his head and his arms hanging down and hands clasped.

The man speaks to the prisoner sitting. "Prisoner #511962, It's time. It's time for the trial."

The prisoner responds, sounding almost ashamed. "I know." The detainee puts on his eyeglasses. "I know." He lifts his head up to show his brown puppy-dog eyes and an expression on his face that shows a guilty sulk. "I know it's today."

Later, the man and woman lead their prisoner (in handcuffs) to a double door. When they open them, we see a giant boardroom with a white, light blue, and gold color scheme. Seven people (5 men and 2 women), 50s to mid-60s, in formal attire are seated around a semicircular table. The skinny, glasses wearing felon walks to a chair. The man and woman that were with him leave and close the doors. The man sitting in the middle (jowly face, salt-and-pepper hair) is looking at a file. He closes it and puts it down flat to talk to the inmate.

"Prisoner #511962. Please, take a seat." He sits on the chair, facing the seven. "Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, you have been brought here by the council for the crimes you've committed and the destruction caused by your alter-ego, the 'hulk.'"

The man sitting left of him (black hair, light brown eyes, near scowly expression) speaks with a German accent. "For billions of dollars' worth of damage in all 50 states."

A bald, Middle Eastern man sitting in the far left end of the table. "For the killing 600 thousand citizens, including injuring millions more."

The councilman in the middle. "Let's not forget about the number of militants that died in vain: 500 pilots, 60,000 soldiers; 2,000 serving a second tour of duty. From The Air Force, the Army, the National Guard…"

A woman (short, curly light blonde hair), sitting in the right end, with an English accent, interrupts him. "What we're trying to say, Dr. Banner, is that you are a dangerous man not only in the United States of America, but to the rest of the entire world."

"How do you plead on your defense after hearing the evidence?" says the man sitting in the middle.

Bruce is sobbing softly, with tears running down his face. "I'm sorry." His voice is quivering with trauma and devastation; not making an effort to hold back the tears or hide his shame. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry… for what I am. For what I've done. For who I've hurt."

The Middle Eastern and German councilmembers unsympathetically verbalize, "We know."

A Japanese man sitting between the two speaks up. "You've been in custody for 3 years, 1 month, and 2 weeks since your last little… 'temper tantrum.' You have been doing a good job staying calm, Bruce, but I will not take this lightly!"

"Before that, you, amazingly, managed to elude every military branch in the US searching for you for 18 weeks… give or take a day. It was only a matter of time before you had one of your little mood swings in a populated area." said the man sitting in the middle.

A man (dark brown hair, thick full beard, angry stare) sitting middle-left speaks with a gruff, heavy Russian accent says, "That why S.H.I.E.L.D created something in case it happen again."

"We have all gotten to see it and given Fury our support, approval and funds." Said an African woman sitting between the Russian and the English members.

"It is ready, Dr. Banner." The English woman articulates to Banner. "The question is: are you?"

Bruce takes off his glasses to wipe away the tears from his eyes. He glances down and taps his glasses on his palm. He then closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, to contemplate on his decision. The council are waiting for Bruce's response. Banner puts his glasses back on and looks at the council members with a valiant, but remorseful expression. "I am. I'm ready."

Later, the man and woman take Bruce to another room. It's bigger, with about 2 dozen men, holding guns, in dark blue jumpsuit/uniforms standing straight in rows of 2 in a path. At the end of it to a giant portal gateway. As Bruce is being lead to it, agent Nick Fury is watching from a large glass window in a higher, separate room. He says through a loudspeaker,

"I'm sorry, Bruce."

"No you're not." Bruce answered back.

"I know. I wish there was another way to do this," he opens a small door from the control panel. There is a small red button. "But we had no choice."

He presses the button and the gateway generates a swirling, blue vortex. Bruce stops 2 ft. from the portal, to reflect on his past exploits and the people he met along the way. He whispers to himself,

"I'm sorry, Betty. I'm sorry… for everything."

With that done, he takes a deep breath and steps through the portal, disappearing. Fury turns the gateway off and an army general, early 60s, gray hair in a crew cut, mustache, jacket clad in badges appears from a dark corner of the room and solicits a question.

"Where did you take him?"

Fury answers, "That's none of your concern. As long as he's not a problem here anymore."

Fury walks away, but turns to shoot the general an inquiry.

"Tell Betty I said 'hi'."

He continues to walk away, but not before the general give him a look, in which he turns his attention to the gateway.

* * *

I wanted to make this crossover because the one that was already uploaded had no Hulk smashing or Pokemon battles or both!


	2. Rocky Start

A light blue, swirling portal opened up over a mountaintop and coming out of it was Bruce, rolling and tumbling down the mountain until he stopped on flat ground. He righted himself and stood up to get a long glimpse of the plateau; all while the portal is closing. Contemplating his newfound surroundings, he says,

"Where am I?"

Bruce walks for a long time on a straight path with hills left and right of him. He starts to get tired, so he finds a soccer ball-sized boulder and sits on it. As he does so, he hears a voice saying

"Geodude."

Bruce looks around to find out where the voice came from.

"Hello!" Bruce calls out. "Is there anybody here?"

The boulder he is sitting on begins to wiggle and the same voice says

"Geodude."

Bruce, surprised and startled, quickly gets up. The 'boulder' starts to hop as Bruce stands there looking at it, intrigued. The 'boulder' turns around to reveal that it is not a boulder at all; it is a Geodude.

"Geodude.", said the Pokémon.

Banner was a little weirded out by it, but started to become fascinated by the stone-like creature. He had never see something—or anything—like _that_ before.

"What are you?" questioned Bruce as he examined the Pokémon.

"Geodude.", responded the rock-type.

"Geodude?"

"Geo. Geodude. Geodude."

"Why do you keep saying 'Geodude'?"

Just then, Banner hears more voices saying that same word as well as saying different ones. More Geodude show up on a ledge, plus Arons and Magnemites.

Bruce looks up in awe at the new creatures. He was astonished that there were more organisms that looked different than the one he currently saw. Just then, a magnemite charges blue electricity between its screws; the others follow. They shoot arcs of electricity right at Banner, whose face quickly turns from wonder to fear. Bruce is knocked back by the blast, but luckily, he isn't hurt. The Pokémon charge at him with irate looks and Bruce starts to run. He takes a sharp turn and hides in a small cave on the side of the rock wall; the Geodudes, Arons and Magnemites continue to run in the direction where they _thought_ Banner was going. In the cave, Bruce was panting heavily and was mildly shaking; he knew what was happening to him and what was going to happen if he didn't calm down, so he thought to himself,

'_No. No. Take it easy. Calm down, Bruce Banner, calm down._'

After a few slow, long breaths, he got his heart rate back down. He pokes his head out to see if the coast was clear. Once it was certain, he walked out. Banner was confused as to what happened.

'_What were those creatures and why did they attack me?' _

He was so busy contemplating that he didn't notice the rock that he trips on. He tumbles down a ledge and into a small canyon. Soon as he gets back up on his feet, the ground beneath him starts to shake. What erupts from below, right in front of Banner, is the Rock Snake Pokémon, Onix. It roars at the man and Bruce, scared out of his wits, runs as fast as he can from the giant stone serpent. Onix uses its tail to make Bruce trip; the stumble also causes his glasses to fall off. The Rock Snake Pokémon grabs Banner and wraps its body around him to crush him. Bruce clenches his eyes and groans in pain as his body is being squeezed like a toothpaste tube. He opens his eyes swiftly and they are now green.

His body starts to grow larger and much more muscular. The onix attacking him starts to look shocked. His skin and hair start to take shades of green and he becomes so big that he rips his blue prison uniform (don't worry; in obvious "hulk-out" tradition, the pants stay on). Now Banner has fully transformed into the Hulk: 8 feet tall, 1000+ lbs. of muscle, strong as he is angry.

The jade giant lets out an angry, monstrous roar at onix. He frees one of his arms and slams his hand into its body so hard that onix lets out a roar of pain and loosens its grip on the green gorilla. Hulk makes a mighty leap at the rock snake's face and punches it with enough force to knock it down. The incredible Hulk pants and glares at the stone serpent to see if it will do anything else. Sure enough, onix, slowly and painfully, lifts its head high to about 50 feet so it can stare down at the green man like it's an ant. It roars at him; Hulk retorts,

"HULK SMASH ROCK SNAKE!"

Both roar at one another, attempting to intimidate each other. Hulk leaps at onix and grabs its neck. The Rock Snake Pokémon shakes wildly to get the big guy off of its segments, even slamming him and itself into a canyon wall. It did nothing except to make mean green more enraged. He smashed onix's top rock segments that made up its neck so hard that there was a crack on one of them. Onix roars in agony and mercy; other Pokémon living in the mountains hear its echoing cry and rush to its location. Meanwhile, hulk is on onix's head trying to pull its horn out; it shakes its head violently to get him off, to no avail. Hulk manages to break the rock/ground Pokémon's horn off and uses it to hit onix multiple times on the head. It groans with every blow it receives. One final hit manages to knock the giant rock worm unconscious. Hulk drops its horn and grabs its tail. He spins the rock snake around and around until he lets go and onix gets hurled miles away from the mountains. Hulk roars,

"ROCK SNAKE NO MATCH FOR HULK! HULK STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!"

The green giant then hears a deep, rumbling roar and a metallic screech. He turns around and sees various Pokémon of different species (a steelix, gravelers, golems, machokes, machamps, ryperiors, lairons, aggrons, skarmorys, magnetons, and magnezones) staring down at him, threateningly. Hulk picks up the horn and roars at the pocket monsters. They zerg rush at him and the hulk leaps towards them, onix horn in hand, bellowing,

"HULK SMASH!"


	3. Forest Fight

Somewhere in a forest clearing, two trainers, Lucas and Brendan, are in the middle of a Pokémon battle.

Brendan: "Swampert, use Double Edge!"

Brendan's Swampert: "Swampert."

Swampert begins charging.

Lucas: "Gallade, use Safeguard."

Lucas' Gallade: "Gallade."

Gallade's eyes glow light blue and a light blue barrier appears around it and it braces itself. Swampert hits Gallade full force into a tree.

Lucas: "Gallade! Are you ok?"

Gallade gets back up and does a fighting stance.

Lucas' Gallade: "Gallade."

Lucas: "Alright!"

Brendan: "I'm impressed. Your Gallade's much tougher than it looks."

Lucas: "Thanks you. That's because I trained him hard and well, just like my other Pokémon."

Brendan: "Well, the battle isn't over yet." (To Swampert) "Use Hammer Arm!"

Swampert charges to Gallade. One of its arms glows white and gets ready to slam Gallade.

Lucas: "Block it."

Gallade reacts just in time; it blocks Swampert's Hammer Arm by crossing _its_ arms above its head a split second before the attack made contact. Brendan is stupefied but becomes slightly annoyed.

Lucas: "Good job! Now, use Leaf Blade."

Brendan: "Uh oh."

Both of Gallade's arms glow a light green and gives Swampert a fury of slashes. Swampert is knocked back and falls on its stomach.

Brendan: "Oh! Come on, buddy. Get up. You can do it."

Brendan's Swampert: (groaning) "Swamp."

It took much effort, but Swampert managed to get back up on its feet.

Lucas: "Hey, Brendan, I'm ready to call it quits if you are."

Brendan: "What, me? No way. Swampert, use Mud Bomb!"

Swampert fires a glob of mud from its mouth at Gallade.

Lucas: "Gallade, return to sender."

Gallade grabs the Mud Bomb and chucks it back at Swampert, hitting its face. Swampert is temporarily blinded by its own attack. It tries to shake the mud off and then it rubs it off.

Brendan's Swampert: "Swamp." (After it wipes the mud off its eyes, confused) "Swampert?"

Gallade used Double Team while Swampert was distracted. It feels a little overwhelmed by the clones.

Brendan: "Swampert! Don't be fooled. They're not all real!"

Brendan's Swampert: "Swamp. Swam-swampert."

Brendan: "Use Muddy Water to determine where the real one is. Go!"

Swampert releases a powerful blast of brown, muddy water from its mouth at the illusions, until there were no more. Brendan realized that something wasn't right; Swampert hit the double teams, but the real one wasn't there among its duplicates.

Lucas: "Teleport."

In a glowing, multicolored silhouette, Gallade suddenly appears of Swampert's back.

Brendan's Swampert: "Swamp?"

Brendan: "Oh, crud."

Lucas: "Bet you didn't see that coming. Gallade, use Future Sight!"

Lucas' Gallade: "Gal."

Gallade closes its eyes for a moment; it sees an image of an Onix whirling around in the sky and another of the same Onix over the clearing that it, Lucas, Brendan, and Swampert are battling. It quickly opens its eyes and lets out a panicked gasp. Lucas is concerned.

Lucas: "What's wrong, Gallade?"

Brendan: "It probably saw a vision of itself getting thrashed and losing to ol' swamp here."

Brendan's Swampert: "Swampert."

Lucas: "No. Gallade definitely saw something when it was using Future Sight."

Lucas' Gallade: "Gallade, gallade."

Gallade points up to the sky. The rest all look and see something—a curvy line—getting bigger.

Lucas: "Something that is coming this way!"

The trainers and their Pokémon (Gallade, still on Swampert's back, rides him) clear out of the clearing and in the forest behind the trees. The Onix with no horn crash lands and slides on the forest clearing. Lucas, Brendan, and their Pokémon peer from behind the trees and see the Rock Snake Pokémon, semi-unconscious and in pain from the impact of the fall. They rush out to help it.

Lucas: "Oh my god. It's an Onix!"

Brendan: "I know it's an Onix; so do you." (Noticing its missing horn) "But what happened to it and how did it get here?"

Lucas: "I don't know, but it's in pretty bad shape. We got to take it to the Pokémon Center, pronto."

Gallade and Swampert walk up to it, slowly. Onix, thinking it's being attacked, lifts its head up but drops it back down because of the excruciating pain.

Lucas: "Gallade, Swampert—get back."

They do exactly that. Lucas turns his attention to the hornless Onix.

Lucas: (calmly) "It's okay. Calm down. You're going to be okay. I promise."

Lucas takes out a Pokéball and catches the rock snake by tapping the ball on its head.

Brendan: "Okay. Now we just need to know _how_ it got here."

Lucas: "Like I said, I don't know how. It must've come from the mountains somewhere."

Brendan: "And where _is_ that, exactly?"

Lucas: "If we can get a better view from the trees, we can find it."

Brendan: "I think I got someone who can help."

He takes out one of his Pokéballs, condensed into its smaller size; he presses the button in the middle to convert it to its full size. He opens the Pokéball and the energy form released materializes into a Shiftry.

Brendan's Shiftry: "Shiftry."

Brendan: "Shiftry, I need you to climb up those trees and see if you can spot any mountains. If you can, tell us where."

Shiftry nods.

Brendan's Shiftry: "Shiftry."

Lucas: "Go with him, Gallade."

Lucas' Gallade: "Gallade."

Shiftry and Gallade then jump from branch to branch until they reach the top of the emergent layer. Both look around until they see mountains and a small figure flying away from there. The Wicked Pokémon and the Blade Pokémon jump down, branch by branch, and point to their trainers where the mountains are.

Brendan: "Thanks Shiftry. Now, return."

Brendan returns Shiftry to its Pokéball.

Lucas: (to Gallade) "You ready, buddy?"

Lucas' Gallade: "Gallade."

Lucas: "Good, then let's go."

Gallade teleports itself, Lucas, Brendan, and Swampert to the mountains. They materialize on a rocky path where they come upon a shocking sight: various Pokémon lying on the terrain, the cliffs, and the mountainsides, groaning and in critical condition. They walk around, looking at the injured creatures and becoming devastated.

Lucas: "My god!"

Brendan: "That must've been some battle they had earlier. What kind of Pokémon was strong enough to take them _all_ down?"

Lucas finds a pair of eyeglasses while walking aimlessly. He picks them up and puts them in his pocket. Swampert turns its head to the left and notices something.

Brendan's Swampert: "Swampert."

Brendan: "Swampert? What is it?"

The Mud Fish Pokemon leads the others to what he saw. They stop to find two giant footprints imprinted in the ground.

Lucas: "Footprints?"

Brendan: "Looks like it but these are too big to belong to a normal person."

Lucas: "Agreed. From heel to toe, it's as long as a Squirtle's shell."

Brendan: "Well, whosever feet they belong to, it looks like he/she didn't survive the disaster that happened here."

Lucas: "I wouldn't be so sure."

Brendan: "What do you mean?"

Lucas: "This is silly, but I have two theories. Either this man survived being in the middle of the biggest Pokémon battle ever without a scratch _or_ he _caused_ the battle and won?"

Brendan: "What the heck are you saying, dude? That the man who left these prints attacked all the Pokémon in this area?"

Lucas: "Yes, only it wasn't just a man, but someone-or _something_-else altogether. Either way, you just helped answer your own question."


	4. Rumbling and Tumbling

The Hulk lands in a thick forest. Seeing that he's finally alone, he pants heavily to calm down and let out some steam. In the trees, various forest Pokémon, like the Caterpie, Pidgey and Oddish evolutionary lines, hide from the jade colored monster. When one of them steps on a twig, the Hulk hears it and turns around. Still angry, but curious, he walks to where the sound was. The Oddish hides quietly behind a tree, shivering; hoping that it won't be seen by the green giant that is walking toward the tree its behind. As the Hulk is within two feet of the tree, a swarm of Beedrill descend from above the canopy and try to overwhelm him. Hulk swats the horde of Poison Bee Pokémon one by one and they retaliate with Poison Stings, Twineedles, and Fury Attacks. The Hulk has had enough and gets extremely angry.

"HULK HATE BIG BUGS!"

So it uses it's thunderclap to knock them back and knock them out. The shock of the clap also causes the trees around him to blow away. Jade Jaws looks around for anything unusual. When he sees nothing, he sits with his back against a tree.

HULK P.O.V: Breathing soft, but heavy. Hulk sees nothing but more vibrant woods and a trail. His vision starts to get blurry; he closes his eyes while quietly saying,

"Hulk. Alone."

A few minutes later...

BRUCE BANNER P.O.V: He wakes up, groaning. He opens his eyes; his vision is blurry.

He rubs his eyes and looks around to see where he is now. He is exasperated that he hulked out again. He gets up right when he sees a trail right in front of where he was sitting. He walks up to the path and looks left and right; in the former direction, he sees, from a distance, buildings. Bruce has relief from his burdens and lets out a small smile as he weakly walks towards the town, with his hands clasping his upper arms. Nearby, a Murkrow is sitting on a tree branch, watching Banner as he makes his way to civilization. It smiles, chuckling quietly in it's closed, crooked beak, and flies off.

A little while later, Bruce is walking in the middle of a small city/rural town, with townhouses, stores, 3—4 story buildings, etc. Everyone that looks at him brush him off because he looks like a bum. Bruce lowers his head and lets out a deep sigh. He walks into a diner, where he gets odd looks from most of the customers and waitresses. One of them ask,

"What do you think you're doing here looking like that?"

Bruce pleads, "I need help."

The waitress refuses to acknowledge his assistance. "I'm sorry, sir. No shirt, no shoes, no service." She explains harshly.

"No, no, no, no. You don't understand. I'm lost. I'm cold. I don't have any money. I don't have anywhere to go or stay!" Banner explains.

The waitress berates him again, "What did I just say?"

"But…" Banner solicits.

"_You_ don't understand our policy here!" She reprimands Banner again. "And the only 'but' here will be yours outside this establishment before I throw you out…"

"It's okay." Said a relaxed, sincere voice, interrupting the waitress' tirade. The waitress looks at the person who said that—it was a preteen boy with red hair, black shirt/coat and shoes, and purple pants eating a plate of rice with mixed vegetables.

"Help him."

The waitress was puzzled at the stranger's random thoughtfulness.

"Are you sure about that?" the waitress queried.

"Of course." The boy replied, "You people and this building are supposed to welcome outsiders."

"Well..." the waitress thought of that for a minute; she was apprehensive in letting the man in and helping him, looking the way he is; but she also remembered that it is her job to provide customer service. She sighed and said to Bruce, apologetically and with a small smile, "All right."

Bruce's heart melted with gratitude. The boy pats a stool to the left of him. Bruce sat there. Another waitress walks up to Bruce, as kind and as welcoming as can be.

"What would you like to order?" she said nicely to him.

"Coffee." Banner said without missing a beat.

"Regular or decaf?"

"Definitely decaf."

"Coming right up!" the waitress walks to the kitchen in the back.

Bruce talks to the boy as he's still eating his food. "Thanks for getting them to let me in."

The boy, still eating, cracks a little smile after hearing that remark. "No problem." He says cheerfully. "I know what it's like to be where I'm not wanted." He says pitifully with his smile turning back into a frown.

"Well, believe me—you're not the only one." Bruce said with a lighthearted chuckle. "I never stay in one place for very long anyway."

The boy says indifferently, "You're not from around here, are you?"

Bruce sighs, "No. I'm not."

Boy: "Well you look like you've had a really rough day."

Banner: "You don't know the half of it."

The waitress arrives carrying a coffee mug on a saucer in one hand and a coffee pot in the other. She places the mug and saucer on the counter and pours the coffee from the pot to the mug until it's almost full. She brings the cup to Banner who smiles, but immediately remembers that he doesn't have any money to pay for it. The boy warmly says to Banner,

"Don't worry. I'll pay for you."

"No need." Said the waitress. "It's on the house." And she gives Bruce a sly, quick, gentle wink before going back into the kitchen.

Banner looks at his reflection in his cup of Joe and starts to look away forlornly, as if he is distracted or saw something. The boy notices this and puts a small smirk on his face when he turns to Banner. He sprinkles a purple powder in the coffee without him (or anyone else) noticing. The boy resumes his "sympathetic stranger" act and asks Bruce what is wrong.

"Oh! Oh, nothing. It's just that…" Banner moves his finger around the top edges of the mug while looking out at the window the opposite side of the entrance. He then sighs to ease himself enough to blurt out what is on his mind while still feeling glum.

"I haven't had a good life. Luck hasn't been on my side for a long time. And this day..." he sighs and then turns to look at his reflection in his coffee. "…was nothing compared to what I had for years. I had a father who didn't love me and a mother that did."

The boy paused scooping rice and vegetables into his mouth when he heard about Banner's family issues. He lowers his head and says in a dejected tone,

"Mm-hmm. Same here."

Bruce continues, "They didn't get along; they wouldn't even talk to each other at dinner. In my late teens to early 20s, I got a silver lining. I met the most beautiful girl in the world…"

The boy smiles.

"…and I got a job. But it all went downhill when the… accident occurred." His sees his reflection shift into that of the Hulk and it roars before it changes back to his own.

"Well, nobody's perfect." The boy snarks. He eats the last of portions of his meal and dab his mouth with a napkin. Banner blows on his coffee to cool it down. He lifts the cup up with both hands and sips from it. "Well, I have to go. It was nice meeting you, Mr.…"

"Please—call me Bruce."

"All right… Bruce."

Bruce suddenly starts to feel a little dizzy. "What… wha… what's happening to me?" he woozily utters. He starts holding his head and finds out that he's also sweating profusely. Then, he gives a quiet gasp when he feels his heartbeat getting faster and faster. He starts to panic; knowing full well what's going to happen next. He thinks to himself,

"_No, Banner. No! Not here; not now. Not now!" _

The waitress comes back to notice Banner acting and feeling strange: unsteady on his seat and dripping like a squeezed wet sponge. She asks out of concern, "What's wrong, honey? Coffee too strong?"

"No." Bruce weakly and alarmingly says; not to the waitress, but to himself. "No!"

Too dizzy to sit up straight, he leans off the stool to the side and falls on the floor. The waitresses and the other customers gasp – except for the boy, who was still sitting and looked at Banner with a devious grin. One by one, the customers walk up to Bruce (laying on his side, shaking, sweating, legs bent, back curled, arms wrapped flat into his chest) and all exclaim in worry.

"What happened to him? /Is he okay? / He looks pale. / Does anyone know CPR? / …and thin."

"No! You need to get away."

A man selflessly refuses. "Sir, you need help. Let us help you."

Bruce's voice trembles as he warns the folks in the diner. "No. You don't understand." Bruce groans and closes his eyes tightly. "For… your… own… safety… get away!" Bruce's eyes open to show that his irises are now green. "Now!"

The boy turns back at the counter and nonchalantly asks, "Check, please."

* * *

Back in the forest, one of the Beedrill laying unconsciously is touched on the top and the side of its head by Lucas.

"Huh," the trainer uttered to Brendan right next to him as he examined the condition of the giant insect. "Looks like their all knocked out."

Brendan replies with a closer analysis. "But they're not hurt; just stunned."

Lucas turns around and looks at something that catches his eye. He gestures and calls to his friend, "Look!"

Brendan walks up and gasps at the very thing Lucas was looking at. He says with slight concern and anxiety, "The same footprints—just like the ones that we saw in the mountains."

"That's right." Lucas ripostes with more composure. "Seems to me that it survived the battle at the plateau and arrived here where it encountered a swarm of Beedrill when it got too close to their nest."

"It's a miracle for _anyone_ to survive an encounter with a Beedrill, but an entire swarm?" Brendan says, now panicking. "This guy isn't human!"

Lucas notices another pair of footprints, only these were smaller and skinnier. "Hey, look at this."

Brendan spots them too. They follow them to a trail.

"Looks like whoever this guy was, he wasn't alone." Said Brendan.

"For some reason, I'm not quite so sure." Lucas says as he looks and compares the two different sized footprints out of the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, they hear an explosion. They turn to the left part of the trail that leads to a city where they see smoke billowing up.

Lucas starts finicking with his Pokétch.

"What was that?" Brendan said, surprised at the bang. He's also wondering about the city. "_Where_ was that?"

"Aha!" Lucas excitedly exclaims; he finds the map app on his Pokétch. "According to the map, based on our current position, we are half a mile from a town called Wishcomb City."

"So what's happening there?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out." Lucas starts to run to Wishcomb.

Brendan, flabbergasted and frozen standing still, reacts, "We are?!"

Lucas runs back to grab Brendan and both run towards the city.

* * *

**I wanted to write the scene where Bruce walks into town and in a ****diner because, in my mind, I needed some way for Banner to enter town, instead of having the Hulk leap there for no reason.**

* * *

**Wishcomb was actually a word my dad would say sometimes.  
**

* * *

**In case you didn't realize, the redhead in the diner was Silver.**


	5. DeforestationDiner Smash

The Hulk lands in a thick forest. Seeing that he's finally alone, he pants heavily to calm down and let out some steam. In the trees, various forest Pokémon, like the Caterpie, Pidgey and Oddish evolutionary lines, hide from the jade colored monster. When one of them steps on a twig, the Hulk hears it and turns around. Still angry, but curious, he walks to where the sound was. The Oddish hides quietly behind a tree, shivering; hoping that it won't be seen by the green giant that is walking toward the tree its behind. As the Hulk is within two feet of the tree, a swarm of Beedrill descend from above the canopy and try to overwhelm him. Hulk swats the horde of Poison Bee Pokémon one by one and they retaliate with Poison Stings, Twineedles, and Fury Attacks. The Hulk has had enough and gets extremely angry.

"HULK HATE BIG BUGS!"

So it uses it's thunderclap to knock them back and knock them out. The shock of the clap also causes the trees around him to blow away. Jade Jaws looks around for anything unusual. When he sees nothing, he sits with his back against a tree while breathing softly, but heavily. Once that died down, Hulk closes his eyes while quietly saying,

"Hulk. Alone."

A few minutes later, a hulked-down Bruce Banner wakes up. He rubs his eyes and looks around to see where he is now. He is exasperated that he hulked out again. He gets up right when he sees a trail right in front of where he was sitting. He walks up to the path and looks left and right; in the former direction, he sees, from a distance, buildings. Bruce has little relief from his burdens and lets out a small smile as he weakly walks towards the town, with his hands clasping his upper arms. Nearby, a Murkrow is sitting on a tree branch, watching Banner as he makes his way to civilization. It smiles, chuckling quietly in it's closed, crooked beak, and flies off.

A little while later, Bruce is walking in the middle of a small city/rural town, with townhouses, stores, 3—4 story buildings, etc. Everyone that looks at him brush him off because he looks like a bum. Bruce lowers his head and lets out a deep sigh. He walks into a diner, where he gets odd looks from most of the customers and waitresses. One of them ask,

"What do you think you're doing here looking like that?"

Bruce pleads, "I need help."

The waitress refuses to acknowledge his assistance. "I'm sorry, sir. No shirt, no shoes, no service." She explains harshly.

"No, no, no, no. You don't understand. I'm lost. I'm cold. I don't have any money. I don't have anywhere to go or stay!" Banner explains.

The waitress berates him again, "What did I just say?"

"But…" Banner solicits.

"_You_ don't understand our policy here!" She reprimands Banner again. "And the only 'but' here will be yours outside this establishment before I throw you out…"

"It's okay." Said a relaxed, sincere voice, interrupting the waitress' tirade. The waitress looks at the person who said that—it was a preteen boy with red hair, black shirt/coat and shoes, and purple pants eating a plate of rice with mixed vegetables.

"Help him."

The waitress was puzzled at the stranger's random thoughtfulness.

"Are you sure about that?" the waitress queried.

"Of course." The boy replied, "You people and this building are supposed to welcome outsiders."

"Well..." the waitress thought of that for a minute; she was apprehensive in letting the man in and helping him, looking the way he is; but she also remembered that it is her job to provide customer service. She sighed and said to Bruce, apologetically and with a small smile, "All right."

Bruce's heart melted with gratitude. The boy pats a stool to the left of him. Bruce sat there. Another waitress walks up to Bruce, as kind and as welcoming as can be.

"What would you like to order?" she said nicely to him.

"Coffee." Banner said without missing a beat.

"Regular or decaf?"

"Definitely decaf."

"Coming right up!" the waitress walks to the kitchen in the back.

Bruce talks to the boy as he's still eating his food. "Thanks for getting them to let me in."

The boy, still eating, cracks a little smile after hearing that remark. "No problem." He says cheerfully. "I know what it's like to be where I'm not wanted." He says pitifully with his smile turning back into a frown.

"Well, believe me—you're not the only one." Bruce said with a lighthearted chuckle. "I never stay in one place for very long anyway."

The boy says indifferently, "You're not from around here, are you?"

Bruce sighs, "No. I'm not."

Boy: "Well you look like you've had a really rough day."

Banner: "You don't know the half of it."

The waitress arrives carrying a coffee mug on a saucer in one hand and a coffee pot in the other. She places the mug and saucer on the counter and pours the coffee from the pot to the mug until it's almost full. She brings the cup to Banner who smiles, but immediately remembers that he doesn't have any money to pay for it. The boy warmly says to Banner,

"Don't worry. I'll pay for you."

"No need." Said the waitress. "It's on the house." And she gives Bruce a sly, quick, gentle wink before going back into the kitchen.

Banner looks at his reflection in his cup of Joe and starts to look away forlornly, as if he is distracted or saw something. The boy notices this and puts a small smirk on his face when he turns to Banner. He sprinkles a purple powder in the coffee without him (or anyone else) noticing. The boy resumes his "sympathetic stranger" act and asks Bruce what is wrong.

"Oh! Oh, nothing. It's just that…" Banner moves his finger around the top edges of the mug while looking out at the window the opposite side of the entrance. He then sighs to ease himself enough to blurt out what is on his mind while still feeling glum.

"I haven't had a good life. Luck hasn't been on my side for a long time. And this day..." he sighs and then turns to look at his reflection in his coffee. "…was nothing compared to what I had for years. I had a father who didn't love me and a mother that did."

The boy paused scooping rice and vegetables into his mouth when he heard about Banner's family issues. He lowers his head and says in a dejected tone,

"Mm-hmm. Same here."

Bruce continues, "They didn't get along; they wouldn't even talk to each other at dinner. In my late teens to early 20s, I got a silver lining. I met the most beautiful girl in the world…"

The boy smiles.

"…and I got a job. But it all went downhill when the… accident occurred." His sees his reflection shift into that of the Hulk and it roars before it changes back to his own.

"Well, nobody's perfect." The boy snarks. He eats the last of portions of his meal and dab his mouth with a napkin. Banner blows on his coffee to cool it down. He lifts the cup up with both hands and sips from it. "Well, I have to go. It was nice meeting you, Mr.…"

"Please—call me Bruce."

"All right… Bruce."

Bruce suddenly starts to feel a little dizzy. "What… wha… what's happening to me?" he woozily utters. He starts holding his head and finds out that he's also sweating profusely. Then, he gives a quiet gasp when he feels his heartbeat getting faster and faster. He starts to panic; knowing full well what's going to happen next. He thinks to himself,

"_No, Banner. No! Not here; not now. Not now!" _

The waitress comes back to notice Banner acting and feeling strange: unsteady on his seat and dripping like a squeezed wet sponge. She asks out of concern, "What's wrong, honey? Coffee too strong?"

"No." Bruce weakly and alarmingly says; not to the waitress, but to himself. "No!"

Too dizzy to sit up straight, he leans off the stool to the side and falls on the floor. The waitresses and the other customers gasp – except for the boy, who was still sitting and looked at Banner with a devious grin. One by one, the customers walk up to Bruce (laying on his side, shaking, sweating, legs bent, back curled, arms wrapped flat into his chest) and all exclaim in worry.

"What happened to him? /Is he okay? / He looks pale. / Does anyone know CPR? / …and thin."

"No! You need to get away."

A man selflessly refuses. "Sir, you need help. Let us help you."

Bruce's voice trembles as he warns the folks in the diner. "No. You don't understand." Bruce groans and closes his eyes tightly. "For… your… own… safety… get away!" Bruce's eyes open to show that his irises are now green. "Now!"

The boy turns back at the counter and nonchalantly asks, "Check, please."

* * *

Back in the forest, one of the Beedrill laying unconsciously is touched on the top and the side of its head by Lucas.

"Huh," the trainer uttered to Brendan right next to him as he examined the condition of the giant insect. "Looks like their all knocked out."

Brendan replies with a closer analysis. "But they're not hurt; just stunned."

Lucas turns around and looks at something that catches his eye. He gestures and calls to his friend, "Look!"

Brendan walks up and gasps at the very thing Lucas was looking at. He says with slight concern and anxiety, "The same footprints—just like the ones that we saw in the mountains."

"That's right." Lucas ripostes with more composure. "Seems to me that it survived the battle at the plateau and arrived here where it encountered a swarm of Beedrill when it got too close to their nest."

"It's a miracle for _anyone_ to survive an encounter with a Beedrill, but an entire swarm?" Brendan says, now panicking. "This guy isn't human!"

Lucas notices another pair of footprints, only these were smaller and skinnier. "Hey, look at this."

Brendan spots them too. They follow them to a trail.

"Looks like whoever this guy was, he wasn't alone." Said Brendan.

"For some reason, I'm not quite so sure." Lucas says as he looks and compares the two different sized footprints out of the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, they hear an explosion. They turn to the left part of the trail that leads to a city where they see smoke billowing up.

Lucas starts finicking with his Pokétch.

"What was that?" Brendan said, surprised at the bang. He's also wondering about the city. "_Where_ was that?"

"Aha!" Lucas excitedly exclaims; he finds the map app on his Pokétch. "According to the map, based on our current position, we are half a mile from a town called Wishcomb City."

"So what's happening there?"

"I don't know, but we're going to find out." Lucas starts to run to Wishcomb.

Brendan, flabbergasted and frozen standing still, reacts, "We are?!"

Lucas runs back to grab Brendan and both run towards the city.

* * *

**I wanted to write the scene where Bruce walks into town and in a ****diner because, in my mind, I needed some way for Banner to enter town, instead of having the Hulk leap there for no reason.**

* * *

**Wishcomb was actually a word my dad would say sometimes.  
**

* * *

**In case you didn't realize, the redhead in the diner was Silver.**


	6. Battle City

On the streets of Wishcomb city, a Primape, a Shuckle, a Cacturne, and a Carnivine are laying on the curb, seriously injured. Their trainers are there with them, trying to tend to their wounds and helping them up. People are also screaming and running.

A few blocks away, the Hulk slams his arm down when a Pinsir grips the limb with its head horns. The angry green goliath flails its arm to get the Stag Bug Pokémon off it, but it's still hanging on. Pinsir's trainer is watching the whole thing nearby and exclaims to his Pokémon,

"Good job, Pinsir! Keep using Vice Grip and don't let go!"

Another trainer next to him commands her Absol. "Absol, use Shadow Ball!"

Absol shoots the Shadow Ball at the Hulk, but he deflects it. The jade giant punches the Pinsir off his arm; Pinsir collides into its trainer with enough momentum to knock it and it's trainer down. The big guy quickly picks up the bug type and hurls it into an apartment, where it's slammed against a wall and slides back down, fainting. The trainer swiftly gets back up to run to its Pokémon's side.

"Absol." said the other trainer, "Use Quick Attack and Double Team. With those moves together, maybe we can overwhelm him."

"Absol." The Disaster Pokémon responds to its trainer and nods. Absol runs fast in a blazing white light at the Hulk while casting illusionary duplicates of itself. Meanie greenie becomes stupefied. Nevertheless, he outrageously tries to grab one of them as they run around him, but it disappears; he tries to grab another one, but the same thing happens over and over again.

"Keep using Double Team!" the trainer calls to her Pokémon. She then gets concerned and thinks, "_It doesn't look like whoever he is is getting tired. Absol can't keep this up forever. I need to think of a different strategy."_

Hulk is getting more frustrated every time he grabs Absol's self-illusions, but he manages to grab the real one and slam it on the ground. Its trainer sends out a Raichu and a Pikachu.

"Okay, guys" she says to them, "I need you two to listen carefully. Raichu, you use Iron Tail on him."

"Raichu." It responds and salutes.

"Pikachu, grab Raichu's tail and use Volt Tackle. Please, guys, we don't have much time; neither does Absol." The mice Pokémon nod to their trainer and each other.

They see Absol running towards the Hulk with its foreclaws glowing white. The green giant roars at it and charges. As it jumps to scratch Hulk, he sidearms the Pokémon across the street. It tries to get back up, but collapses. Raichu and its pre-evolution dash at the green strong man. Raichu winks at its partner running beside him; Pikachu winks back. When they're close enough, Raichu jumps as soon as its tail glows white and Pikachu grabs it. Raichu spins its body around to build enough force to strengthen its attack. Pikachu's whole body becomes engulfed in electricity. Raichu uses Iron Tail on the green goliath, with Pikachu holding on to the end of it using Volt Tackle, turning themselves into an electrified wrecking ball. The combo makes contact; it was strong enough to have the Hulk stagger back. The two Mouse Pokémon, standing on all fours, strike an attack pose. The Hulk moves towards them, but he notices that he can't. Electrical sparks appear around it; it's been paralyzed!

"Yes!" said the trainer. She then turns to her Pokémon, "Okay Pikachu, Raichu, let's see if this guy's as fast as he is strong. Use Quick Attack, Thunderbolt, and Agility now!"

"Pika-pika! /Rai-raichu!"

They rush at the big guy, who manages to overcome his paralysis. Both Mouse Pokémon dodge jade jaw's hits with ease while shocking him simultaneously. This goes on for a short while (how long? you decide), but they start to get exhausted. Hulk succeeds in grabbing the two; he slams them together and throws them at their trainer's feet. The Hulk advances slowly, menacingly. The girl backs away in fear only to find that he's going to smash her Pokémon, laying helplessly on the tarmac, too weak to defend themselves. As he lifts up his fist to deliver the final blow, a voice out of nowhere says,

"Arcanine, Flamethrower!"

Suddenly, a stream of fire hits Hulk in the back and he yells in pain. He turns around to see Officer Jenny, her Arcanine, and 4 to 5 other officers standing behind her. Hulk roars at them and the police take a step (or two) back in slight alarm, but not Jenny. She commands her Pokémon to attack.

"Arcanine, Extremespeed!" the Legendary Pokémon charges at the monster at blinding speed and lands a direct hit. Jenny tells one of the other officers to take the girl and her Pokémon to safety. The female trainer has returned her Pokémon to their Pokéballs when the male officer leads her away from the fight. She tells him that her Pokémon need to go to the Pokémon center and he tells her to quickly go there. Arcanine is knocked back by one of the Hulk's punches. It uses Flamethrower again full force. The Hulk is getting burned by the attack, but he is pressing forward to the fire-type, albeit strenuously. He uppercuts the flame canine hard enough to have him crash into a building's top level wall.

"Arcanine!" Jenny shouts in shock as she sees this. Hulk start to charge at the squad. Another officer throws his Pokéball and hollers,

"Hippowdon, use Rock Tomb now!" The Pokéball lets out a Hippowdon.

A giant rock protrudes from the ground in front of Hulk as well as behind him; more and more rocks emerge around him until he is completely encased. The officers pull out their guns and aim at the rock trap. They inch closer to it ever cautiously. Monstrous roaring is heard inside. There is a rumbling in the trap and a few rocks starts cracking.

"He's breaking through!" the officer said in slight panic and seriousness. "Hippowdon, use Rock Tomb again. We have to keep him contained no matter what."

Hippowdon responds in agreement and summons more rocks to encase the tomb, until it is five layers thick. Inside it, the big guy is breaking them down one by one but they're too durable; he's lucky enough to break one in half while revealing there is another one in front of it. Outside, the officers are holding their ground while still pointing their guns at the trap, waiting for something to happen. Just then, they feel an earthquake. Jenny asks the officer if his Hippowdon did that; then he asks it if it used Earthquake. Hippowdon shakes its head "No." Jenny turns her attention back to the trap, wondering if the Hulk caused the earthquake, not Hippowdon. She fearlessly, but slowly, walks to the trap. She knocks on it a few times, then flinches and points her gun to it. When nothing happens, she looks at the rock tomb out of puzzlement and unease.

"Something's not right." She says, then turns to the officer with the Hippowdon. "Officer Jake."

Officer Jake responds, "Yes, ma'am."

"Have your Hippowdon retract Rock Tomb."

"What?!" Jake is shocked by her directive, along with everybody else. "But, ma'am, you can't be…"

"Now!" She commands with utmost seriousness.

Jake is reluctant, but eventually relents. He nods to his partner and the Heavyweight Pokémon makes the rocks retract back in the ground. They are all startled by what they see—a giant, deep tunnel in place where the rock tomb was. The officers gasp, while Jenny suddenly has a shocking realization.

Officer Jenny: "He dug himself free!"

Officer #3: "But where is he going to come up?"

A big, green fist from the ground punches Hippowdon upward. Jake returns his Pokémon to his Pokéball. The Hulk pulls the rest of himself up out from underground.

Officer #1: (frightened) "He looks angry!"

Officer Jenny: "Oh, yeah? Well, so am I!"

Jenny runs to shoot the green giant, but another officer stops her.

Officer #2: "There is no way you can take him."

Officer Jenny: "You have a better idea?"

Once out, the Hulk roars angrily at the officers.

Officer #2: (scared) "Yeah. RUUUUUNNNNNNNN!"

The officers run to their squad cars; Jenny to her police cycle. They drive away, but Mr. Green pursues on foot, managing to keep up with one of the cruisers. The passenger of that car sees Hulk catching up with them via rear-view mirror.

"He's getting closer." The officer panics. "Floor it!"

The driver does so. He sees the Hulk jump high and disappear from the mirror view.

Driver/Officer #3: "Where did he go?"

Passenger/Officer #2: (panicky) "Who knows?! Who cares?! Keep driving!"

Hulk lands on the hood and punches/cracks the windshield. The two officers gasp in shock as Hulk rips open the roof. They both scream in terror as they see the big guy swiftly reach for them.

The officers in the second squad car are speculating where the Hulk is. They keep driving, until they stop and see Officer Jenny's Arcanine on the side of the road, leaning on its side on a wall, seriously injured. They both exit out of the vehicle to try and tend to it; the driver calls Jenny on her walkie-talkie that they found her Arcanine. Jenny tells them she'll pick him up and that they should be going. They get in and go. Shortly after, a squad car lands and crashes in front of theirs. They gasp at the almost sudden impact, but sigh of relief when they realize that they almost would've been crushed. The Hulk jumps right in front of them and grabs the second squad car. The cops cling to each other, knowing that they won't survive this. He flings it back and the officers scream as they're hurled through the air. The green goliath then sees the Arcanine. He walks up to it to finish the job. Arcanine is too weak to defend itself, so it clenches its eyes closed because it knows 'this is it'. Hulk looks at the Pokémon and gets ready to smash.

"Bad dog."

The Pokémon turns into red energy before it got hit. Hulk's fist phased through the energy form and its hands became numb; it was also confused as to how it turned into energy. He then saw it get sucked in into Jenny's Pokéball. Jenny quickly puts the petal to the metal and speeds off, with a serious, determined, and fearless look on her face. Hulk does a super high jump to catch Jenny where she's going to be; he lands in front of her, but she quickly turns around without stopping. He jumps again, lands, but she turns around again. They both keep at it, until Hulk grabs and rips apart a chunk of the street. He throws it at her and it hits her. She falls off her motorcycle and rolls helplessly into a wall. Jenny backs up to the wall. She pulls out her pistol and starts shooting at the jade giant as he moves closer, but each bullet shot just serves to make him angrier, even though the bullets fall when they make contact with his skin. Hulk grabs her arm to lift her whole body up and pin her.

"Pretty woman shoot Hulk." Hulk irately utters as he squeezes Officer Jenny's arm that he is holding. She screams and forcefully let's go of her gun.

"Hulk smash pretty woman!"

Officer Jenny flinches as he gets ready to pummel her. Suddenly, a high pressure stream of water hits Hulk from the side; this has him let go of Jenny's arm, which she painfully clenches. The water stream stops and Hulk is hit full force by Swampert's Double Edge, which knocks the former back a few meters and gives the latter recoil damage. Lucas runs to help Officer Jenny get back up.

Lucas: (concerned) "Officer Jenny, are you all right?"

Officer Jenny: (sarcastically) "Oh, I'm fine. I'm just laying around on a wall" (annoyed, yelling) "with the bones in my arm in a million pieces!"

The Hulk gets back up and growls at the Mud Fish Pokémon; Swampert growls at him back.

"Swaaaammmperrrrt!"

"Hey Cabbage Head." A voice taunts Hulk; he looks around to see who it came from. He looks at someone behind Swampert—it's Brendan!

"Why don't you pick on someone—or something—that can pack a punch and take it?"

Brendan takes out his Pokéball and releases Vigoroth.

Brendan's Vigoroth: "Vigoroth!"

"Swampert, Vigoroth." Brendan says to his Pokémon in a serious tone, "Keep… him… busy."

Various trainers taking cover in a store look out the window and try to scan the Hulk with their Pokédexes.

"No Pokémon data found."

The trainers were stunned when they learned that the Hulk wasn't a Pokémon, so they scanned Swampert and Vigoroth.

"Swampert, the Mud Fish Pokémon. The evolved form of Marshtomp and the final form of Mudkip. It is strong enough to lift boulders weighing one ton and can swim faster than a jet ski."

"Vigoroth, the Wild Monkey Pokémon, and the evolved form of Slakoth. Vigoroth loves a good fight. It goes on a wild rampage to get its stress level down. It gets irritated when it's standing still."

One trainer hiding with the others says, "I hope they live up to their entries reputation."

The Hulk, Swampert, and Vigoroth then charge at each other. Vigoroth slashes at Hulk's torso, but he knocks him away. Swampert then attacks him with a Focus Punch before locking the green goliath in hand-to-hand combat. Hulk manages to push Swampert back with little effort and hits the Mud Fish Pokémon straight several blocks to the town's water fountain. As Hulk gets ready to leap to Swampert's location, Vigoroth ambushes him from behind by jumping on his back and giving him a headlock. Hulk tries to shake him off, but theWild Monkey Pokémon is still holding its grip and hanging on tight. Brendan, watching the fight from a distance, starts to worry.

"_This doesn't make any sense."_ Brendan thinks, _"Their attacks are hitting him, but they're not slowing him down."_

Hulk leaps backward to a building wall, hoping to get theWild Monkey Pokémon to loosen its grip. Vigoroth starts to get too weak to hold on and releases its headlock on the Hulk. Still, it has enough energy to dodge a piece of debris thrown at it by jade jaws. Lucas, Officer Jenny, and the other trainers hide and watch as Hulk rips off a street lamp to whack Vigoroth away.

Lucas: "We've gotta stop him before he causes more collateral damage."

Trainer #1: "Don't you think we tried?!"

Trainer #2: "Yeah. Even our Pokémon's strongest attacks couldn't stop him."

Lucas: "Maybe it wasn't the _strength_ of the attacks."

Trainer #2: "What do you mean?"

Officer Jenny: "You have a plan?"

Lucas: "Yes. I do. I need you all to tell me what Pokémon you have and what attacks they can use."

Vigoroth is now laying helplessly on the sidewalk. Hulk walks up to Vigoroth to smash whatever life it had left. Before that happens, another high pressure stream of water hits Hulk again; though now, Hulk is visibly annoyed. He blocks and pushes his way through the stream. He looks over the water to see it was Swampert's doing; it was using Hydro Pump. Hulk pushes harder through until he was close enough to punch the Mud Fish Pokémon straight into a building wall. The Hulk walks up to Swampert and Brendan and Swampert himself gets a look of fear. Mr. Green is getting ready to smash the mud fish…

Brendan: "Swampert!"

…when he gets stopped in his tracks by Psychic. Lucas used his Gallade and a random trainer used his Claydol to keep Hulk still.

Lucas: (to Brendan) "Brendan, tell your Swampert to use Ice Beam!"

Brendan: "Why? What good will that do?"

Lucas: "Just do it!"

Brendan tells his Pokémon to use the attack; 2 other trainers tell their Glalie and Cloyster to use it as well. All three of the Pokémon manage to encase the green goliath's body in ice, save for his head. Hulk angrily struggles to break free. A female trainer with a Butterfree and a Venomoth tells them to use Sleep Powder. Both bug-types hover over the Hulk's head and sprinkle a blue powder on him. Hulk now goes from growling to groaning to breathing heavily. He mutters as he's getting drowsy,

"Hulk… tired." And he goes to sleep.

Trainers, officers, and Pokémon all let out a sigh of relief.

Officer Jenny: "Great Job, everyone. While he's sleeping, we'll take him to jail where he'll wake up behind bars."

Officer #1: (he walks up to Jenny, looks at the Hulk then back at Jenny) "We're gonna need bigger cuffs."

Brendan: "Hey, guys, look—he's shrinking."

Everyone looks at the Hulk in disbelief to find out Brendan was half right; the Hulk was shrinking, only because he was turning back to Banner right before their eyes. After Bruce went back to normal, Lucas pulls him out of his icy confinement, since he was now small enough to slip through. A citizen comes out of hiding and verbalizes while pointing to Banner,

"That's him! That's the guy that walked into town hours ago."

Lucas: (baffled) "He is?" (Looks at Bruce) "Who the heck _is_ this guy?"

Officer Jenny: "I don't know, but when he wakes up, I want _him_ to tell me himself."

* * *

**Think of ****"Kanto Trainer Battle"(original or remix), "Real **** Pokémon vs Copy Pokémon", "Who is stronger? Epic Battle", and "Kanto Wild Pokémon** **Battle" from the anime soundtrack while reading the fight scenes.**


	7. Police Brutality

BRUCE'S POV: His eyes open—slowly. Everything looks blurry. He sees a room: large blue tiles on the walls; white on the ceiling and floor, ceiling lights, a door, and a giant mirror next to it.

Bruce Banner is just waking up. He is sitting on a chair at a metal table; He is also handcuffed, with the chains attached to the table. He looks around in a panicked state, wondering how he got there. He suddenly hears and sees the doorknob jiggling and turning; the door opens and in comes Officer Jenny, totally ticked off and with her arm in a sling.

"Comfy?" Jenny sarcastically quips. She angrily slams the door shut and sits on a chair opposite side of Bruce.

Bruce Banner: "What happened?" (Panting heavily) "Where am I?"

Officer Jenny: "You don't get to ask any questions — _I_ ask _you_."

Bruce Banner: "Please... please. Please, just… tell me where I am. Please."

Officer Jenny: "You're at the Wishcomb City Precinct – interrogation room."

Bruce Banner: "'Wishcomb City'?"

Officer Jenny: "Yes. And you are going to pay for the destruction you did to the city!"

Bruce Banner: "'Destruction?'"

Officer Jenny: (she gets up and slams her fist on the table) "Cut the crap and stop repeating a word I said in my sentence! You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about because you _know_ what you did… Hulk!"

Bruce Banner: (Eyes open wide, gasps, stammers) "H-H-H-H-Hulk?"

Officer Jenny: "That's what you call yourself, right? _Right?_"

Bruce Banner: "No—at least, not when I'm like _this_."

Officer Jenny: "What the hell do you mean?"

Bruce Banner: (Stammering, pauses then sighs) "My _real_ name is Robert Bruce Banner—you can call me 'Bruce'—and yes, I _did_ wreck your town, but as my _other_ half; the one that you and _it_ called the Hulk."

Officer Jenny: (sits back down, unconvinced, confused) "O-kay, let me see if I can wrap my head around this; so _Bruce_ is you're real name…"

Bruce nods.

Officer Jenny: "…while Hulk is what it called itself while you were big, green, and buff?"

Bruce Banner: "In a way."

Officer Jenny: "Wait. Wait. Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. Are you trying to tell me that you and this _Hulk_ character are actually two different _people_… in the same _body?!_"

Bruce Banner: (dismayed) "Yes."

Officer Jenny stared blankly at Banner for a moment, thinking that he is crazy.

Officer Jenny: "That… has… got… to be… the weirdest, stupidest, most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard of in my whole entire life!"

Bruce Banner: "It's the truth!"

Officer Jenny: "Yeah, right! Maybe you just need a little bit more… (She takes out her Pokéball) …convincing."

Jenny releases Arcanine from its Pokéball. Bruce was fascinated at how a creature of Arcanine's size could fit inside the little ball and how the little ball could compress the Pokémon's mass and size and convert it from energy to flesh and blood. Bruce was captivated by the Legendary Pokémon and tried to pet it, but Arcanine growled at him to stay back. It approached Banner so that it could sniff him; after a few whiffs, it suddenly backed away to a corner of the room in fear.

Officer Jenny: "Arcanine? Arcanine!? (Growls) Fine!"

She pulls out her gun and points it at Banner's chest. Bruce, unflinching, holds his hands up and backs up to the wall.

Bruce Banner: "Are you really going to shoot me?"

Officer Jenny: "Only because I'm losing my patience with you! Because you didn't answer my questions—instead, you made up some crackpot story…"

Bruce Banner: "I didn't expect you to believe me, anyway."

Jenny cocks her gun.

Bruce Banner: "Okay. How about we try this again—from the beginning? Because if you shoot me now, the Hulk's gonna come out and he's gonna tear this place down from the inside out. I don't think you would like that" (looks at Arcanine) "and it looks like your tiger-bear thing would agree."

Jenny then lowers her gun, takes a look at Arcanine cowering; she herself gets a worried look. Jenny begins to imagine what would happened if she went through with her shot: Banner turns into Hulk. He slams Jenny through the mirror and into a wall. Then, Hulk breaks out of the room, walks up to her and smashes her. She shakes her head to get that scenario out of her thoughts. She turns her head to look back at Banner with a stony expression. She puts her gun away and returns Arcanine to its Pokéball.

Bruce Banner: "You made a good decision."

Officer Jenny: (strictly) "Did I?"

Jenny punches and roundhouse kicks Bruce Banner in the head, knocking him unconscious. Two policemen standing outside the room look through the one-sided mirror and chat amongst themselves of the interrogation and Jenny's methods.

Officer #4: (talking to Jake) "Okay, was that really necessary?"

Officer Jake: (to Officer #4) "She has her reasons; we shouldn't try to ask her why. Besides, I think she's really ticked about breaking her arm because of him."


	8. Show and Tell

In a dark room, a man, at his desk, is sitting in a chair, turned around so that he faces the wall. The room itself is colored cranberry red; two widely spaced springline windows letting sunlight through have curtains in a different shade of that color. From his chair, he is sipping from a champagne glass. A Team Rocket grunt barges in through the double doors. The grunt then stands straight in place.

"Giovanni, sir!" The grunt says to the man sitting in the chair turned around. "I have some extraordinary news to tell you."

"You should've knocked before coming in." Giovanni says sounding calm, but somewhat annoyed. "How many times do I have to tell you!?"

The grunt gets nervous and gulps. He bows while saying, "Apologies, sir."

After a short pause, Giovanni gestures his hand from his chair to signal the grunt to continue.

The grunt says, caught off guard, "Oh, yes." He clears his throat and continues his report. "Our spies have recently located several injured Pokémon at a mountain 2 miles outside of a small town, as well as a green muscled man appearing in said town."

"And?" Giovanni says, wanting to hear more.

The grunt tries to get an answer out, "And… well… you should probably see this for yourself."

He grabs a remote from Giovanni's desk and clicks it to turn on a TV located over the double doors. It turns on to a news broadcast. The screen shows the various mountain Pokémon from the Plateau laying almost lifeless with their serious injuries.

The anchor says, _"…these Pokémon are in serious critical condition. Various trainers passing by are unsure how this happened, but recent outside sources have found what—or _who_—was responsible for this._ _Reports tell us that a huge, green man wearing ripped, purple shorts calling itself 'Hulk' terrorized the city of Wishcomb: destroying numerous buildings and establishments and injuring hundreds of citizens and Pokémon. Here is video footage taken approximately 3 hours ago today."_

Video footage from a helicopter of the Hulk attacking various Pokémon in Wishcomb city is shown. Intrigued, Giovanni turns his chair around to watch the news footage. His face is obscured in the shadows. He pets his Persian sitting next to him.

"_We don't know what his intention was at that point, but it seemed like he was targeting the Pokémon more than the city's populace."_

There is now a clip of Hulk restrained in ice and put to sleep via Sleep Powder and then shrinking back to Bruce Banner shown while the anchor speaks.

"_A few brave trainers managed to weaken and, hopefully and successfully, immobilize the man, but what we saw soon after that was just baffling."_

Giovanni dropped his jaw slightly after seeing Hulk transform to a normal man.

"_After the skirmish in the streets, many trainers took their Pokémon to the Pokémon center where they're receiving urgent medical care. The amount of destruction caused $127,000 worth of damage. In all my years of reporting, I have never seen anything like this before." _

The grunt turns the TV off and puts the remote back on the desk.

"Well, what do you think?" the Team Rocket grunt swayed his boss. Giovanni closed his mouth to frown and after contemplating what he saw on the news, he slowly opens his mouth to smirk with his gleaming, white teeth illuminating his face in the darkness.

He says astoundedly and deviously, "I like what I see."

The grunt smirks as well.

"Even the strongest wild Pokémon were no match for his raw power." Said Giovanni, proud and smug, "He will be a useful asset for our plans. We must meet him, then recruit him. He won't be that hard to find. One way or another, one _form_ or another, he… will… be… mine."

* * *

BRUCE BANNER'S POV: He groans as he opens his eyes—it's blurry. He makes out two human shapes sitting in front of him, but he can't make out their faces.

Lucas and Brendan are across from Banner, whose laying in a bed in a small room. Bruce is a little dizzy; he puts his hand on his forehead because it hurts. He lifts himself halfway up the bed.

"Where am I?" said Banner, in a dazed state, as he looks around the room; he then looks straight at Lucas and Brendan and says, "Who are you?"

Bruce squints to get a better detail of the trainer's faces. Lucas notices the man's nearsightedness; he remembers the glasses he picked up at the mountain plateau and wonders if it'll help the man see better. He takes them out of his pocket, puts them (back) on Banner and sure enough, Banner sees clearly.

"There." Said Lucas to the man. "Better?"

"Much." Responded Bruce, with a small, lighthearted chuckle. "Where did you find my glasses?"

The two trainers turn to look at each other in slight bewilderment, then turn back to look at Bruce.

Lucas: (to Bruce Banner) "_Your_ glasses?"

Bruce Banner: "Yeah, thank you for finding them."

Brendan: "Uhhh… you're welcome."

Bruce Banner: "Where did you find them?"

Lucas: "In the mountains."

Bruce Banner: "The Mountains?"

Lucas: "Yeah – 2 miles away from this city."

Brendan: "You must've lost them."

Bruce Banner: (nervously, eyes shifting back and forth) "Yeah… Lost them…"

Lucas reassures Bruce that everything's alright and that he's safe. Brendan tells him what he was doing in the mountains. Bruce doesn't give them _all_ the details; only the ones that would make sense to them.

Lucas: "You sure had a very rough day."

Brendan: "I'll say."

Lucas: "In the middle of a rockslide within the mountains, trekking through the forest without food or water…"

Brendan: "Not to mention almost destroying the entire city."

Lucas: (affronted) "Brendan!"

Brendan: "What? I said 'almost'"

Bruce Banner: (shocked) "What?"

Bruce quickly gets out of bed and runs to the window right of it. He pulls back the curtains and his face freezes into one of trauma. He sees cracks and deep potholes in the street and sidewalks; store and building windows cracked; a bent street lamp on the ground. Bruce becomes even more devastated when he looks at the diner he walked into shortly after he entered town; there is a big hole of broken glass and concrete where the entrance used to be with the door bent and on the pavement. A waitress is wheeled out on a stretcher, along with various customers. Bruce, face still frozen in shock, slowly walks backwards from the window and sits on the side of the bed.

"Oh no!" Bruce said, in utmost shock, "What have I done?!"

Banner holds his head and lowers it to bury his face between his legs and starts sobbing. Lucas and Brendan start to feel pity for the man. Both boys sit next to him on either side; Lucas puts his hand on Bruce's back and pats it.

Lucas: "Hey. (to Banner, crying, looks at Lucas) Are you going to be okay?"

Bruce Banner: "Okay? _Okay?!_ No! I don't know where I am. This day has gone so wrong — then again, every day in my life has gone so wrong."

Lucas: "Everybody has bad days."

Brendan: "Yeah—some worse than others."

Bruce Banner: "Not everybody. You boys don't know what I've been through or go through now—nobody does! I don't have anyone to help me. No one wants to help me. I'm just… alone."

Lucas: "You're not alone—not anymore."

Bruce smiles.

Lucas: "Now, can you at least tell us your name? Your _real_ name. Please?"

Bruce is unsure, but Lucas and Brendan smile at him; Brendan nods, to show Banner that they can trust him and he can trust them. He takes a deep breath.

"Okay." Said Banner, now much more relaxed and calm. "My name… is… Bruce Banner."

"You see?" commended Lucas, "That wasn't so hard."

"_I_ have a question to tell you." said Brendan, "How did you become 8 feet tall, green skinned, and buff?"

Banner suddenly gets apprehensive and starts stuttering like a nervous wreck to get the question out. Lucas placidly calms him down and tells Bruce that since he's had a bad day, he should rest and talk about it tomorrow. Bruce hesitantly agrees. As the trainers start to leave the room to give Banner some alone time, he call them to tell him _their_ names; they do.

Brendan and Lucas are outside the room in the hallway; Lucas is locking the door.

Brendan: "This is a big mistake, Lucas. Why are we keeping the Hulk here?"

Lucas: "At least he's safe."

Brendan: "Yeah — _he's_ safe! What about us?! I knew I should've stopped you when you persuaded Jenny that we would take him."

Lucas: "Officer Jenny was already in a bad mood, on account of having her arm turned into a maraca."

Brendan crosses his arms and growls in displeasure.

Lucas: "Plus, lest we forget, she said and I quote, 'as long as you keep him away from me as far as possible. I don't want to be within ten feet of that guy.'"

Brendan: "For good reason. Lucas, you saw what he did to those Pokémon and what he almost did to my Swampert."

Lucas: "Swampert and the others are at the Pokémon Center."

Brendan: "Because of _him_."

Lucas: "Yes, I know, but despite that…"

Brendan: "Lucas, this is a bad idea and you know it! There is no way he's staying or coming with us! If he becomes a mean, green, smashing machine again, we won't be able to stop him like we did before! I never asked or wanted to be his babysitter—_you_ volunteered me along with yourself!"

Lucas: "I know!"

Brendan: "Then why? Why!?"

Lucas: (yelling) "Because…"

They are now silent and give each other serious stares for a few seconds before Lucas turns around and marches down the hallway. Brendan follows him to get a response out of him. Lucas is still fuming as he keeps walking, ignoring Brendan's request for a reply. Lucas finally stops near the end of the hallway. Brendan is still goading his friend into giving him an explanation. After a short, moment of silence, Lucas breathes deeply to compose himself. He turns to talk to Brendan, with a serious expression on his face.

"I wanted to walk away from the room so that Banner wouldn't hear any more of this."

They hold glares at each other for a moment.

Lucas: "Look, Brendan, I know you know this is a bad idea; _I_ know it is too. I wanted to take him because no one else would. I know what I got myself into. The reason I included you is because I can't do this by myself. This man is all alone – hungry, thirsty, dirty, scared. I just think he needs someone to talk to – like us."

Brendan: (crosses his arms, does a side glance) "I guess."

Lucas: "Look, just give him time, okay? And at least try to _pretend_ to be a _little_ bit more sympathetic."

Lucas smiles and pats his friend's shoulder. Lucas walks back to Banner's room. Brendan rolls his eyes, pointing out the insanity of it and showing no interest, but will go through with it because of Lucas' trustworthiness.

Brendan: (exasperated) "Alright, alright, I'll do it, but I'm not going to like it."


	9. A whole new world we live in

Bruce Banner, wearing a blue prisoner jumpsuit, is fearfully running away from something while on a hovering rocky path, surrounded by a black/dark blue distorted sky. He pants heavily. He looks back to see…

BRUCE BANNER'S P.O.V: …an Onix slithering towards him and roaring.

Bruce, now more frightened, runs faster. He keeps running for a few moments, while gaining some distance between himself and the Rock Snake Pokémon. He then hits the brakes when he gets to the end the path. He apprehensively looks down at the edge of the path to see…

BRUCE BANNER'S P.O.V: …a rapidly swirling black and purple vortex a dozen feet down.

He looks back to see Onix rapidly approaching while at the same time, he hears buzzing. He turns to look straight…

BRUCE BANNER'S P.O.V: …and sees nothing but the weird looking sky… until a swarm of Beedril appear out of nowhere.

Bruce stands back, scared out of his wits. He is now cornered between two different Pokémon species that are not only blocking him, but want to attack him. The only way he can escape is through the portal, but it's being blocked by the swarm. Now Bruce is faced with an ultimatum: get attacked or brave it to reach the portal. Banner starts to hesitate, but puts on a brave face as he then closes his eyes and charges through the swarm. He jumps from the edge and drives into the portal, feet first, with Onix and the Beedril swarm right on his tail. Bruce holds his nose and his breath as he enters the portal.

Back in the room, Bruce's eyes pop wide open, he quickly sits up on the bed, and yells. He pants and sweats. He closes his eyes, puts his hand on his sweat-soaked forehead, and exhales to calm himself down. "Just a dream." He says to himself. "Just… a dream."

The door opens. Lucas and Brendan enter the room holding shopping bags.

Lucas: (to Banner, cheerfully) "Good morning!"

The trainers place the bags on the bed near Bruce.

Bruce Banner: (yawns) "Good morning." (He rubs his eyes) "What time is it? How long was I asleep?"

Brendan: "You've been asleep for 11 whole hours. You must've been _really_ tired."

Bruce turns to his right and sees a digital clock on a nightstand near a lamp. He turns the clock to face his direction (It says 8:39 A.M.). He opens the drawer to get his glasses; he puts them on after he closes the drawer.

Lucas: "How do you feel?"

Bruce Banner: "Well, I, uh… I feel great – as great as I'll _ever_ feel."

Lucas and Brendan exchange looks then stare back at Bruce.

Bruce Banner: "So where did you two go?"

Lucas: "While you were sleeping, we woke up early and did some shopping."

Brendan: "To get you some new clothes. We did know what size you were, but given that you're much bigger than Lucas and _me_…"

Lucas hands Bruce a bluish-gray, long sleeved buttoned down shirt; Bruce smiles at this grateful and helpful gesture. Brendan flings a pair of large, purple sweatpants at Banner as well; He holds them up and looks at them perplexedly.

Bruce Banner: "These are a little big for me, aren't they?"

Brendan: "Duh – that's the point! XXL, with an elastic strap! They are flexible, waterproof, tear-resistant, and very comfortable. Even a Nidoking can fit in these."

Bruce Banner: (Slowly, confused, failing to comprehend) "A… Nidoking?"

Brendan: "Yeah." (Chuckles) "You act as if you've never heard of one before."

The trainers start to chuckle amongst themselves. Bruce gives them a puzzled look. Lucas slowly stops laughing and gets Brendan to as well when he finds out that Banner wasn't joking.

Brendan: "So you don't know what a Nidoking is?"

Bruce Banner: "No."

Brendan: "What about a Carvanha?"

Bruce Banner: "No. Wait, were you guys trying to say 'cabana'?"

Lucas: "A Girafarig?"

Bruce Banner: "Girafa-what?"

Brendan: (groans) "What about a Geodude?"

Bruce contemplates for a second and remembers the Pokémon say that name back at the mountains; he nods.

Brendan: "Alright then. What about a Charmeleon?"

Bruce Banner: "Uh, don't you mean a 'chameleon'?"

Lucas: "An Aerodactyl?"

Bruce Banner: "You mean a _pterodactyl_?"

Brendan: "A Sneasel?"

Bruce Banner: "A weasel."

Lucas: "A Pineco?"

Bruce Banner: "A _pinecone_."

Brendan: "A Forretress?"

Bruce Banner: "If you were trying to say 'fortress', then yes, I've heard of that."

Lucas: "A Kakuna?"

Bruce Banner: "Its pronounced cocoon. 'Kuh-koon'."

Brendan: "An Exeggutor?"

Bruce Banner: "That's executor."

Lucas: "A Gastly?"

Bruce Banner: "A ghastly what?"

Brendan: "A Lombre?"

Bruce Banner: "That's pronounced _hombre. Hombre_ – with an 'h'. A silent 'h'."

Lucas: "A Seel? A Dewgong?"

Bruce Banner: "Yes, I've heard of those."

Brendan: "What about a Lanturn? A Horsea?"

Bruce Banner: "Mmhmm."

Lucas: "A Persian? A Starly?"

Bruce Banner: "Yes, I know what a Persian is – and don't you guys mean a 'starling'?"

Brendan: "Farfetch'd? Krabby?"

Bruce Banner: "What you're telling me is farfetched. And Crabby? I'm not crabby, just edgy."

Lucas: "A Slowpoke? Gloom?"

Bruce Banner: "I'm feeling a little bit of _that—_well, the latter part preferably."

Brendan: "Jynx? Pinsir?"

Lucas: "Drowzee?"

Brendan: "Hypno?"

Lucas: "Aipom?"

Brendan: "Combusken?"

Lucas: "Stantler?"

Brendan: "Hitmontop?"

Bruce Banner: "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down."

Bruce is starting to get overwhelmed with the bombarding Pokémon names.

Lucas: "Igglybuff? Jigglypuff? Wigglytuff?"

Brendan: "Silcoon? Cascoon?"

Lucas: "Natu? Xatu?"

Brendan: "Tentacool? Tentacruel?"

Lucas: "Koffing? Weezing?"

Lucas/Brendan: "A Lugia?"

Bruce Banner: (repulsed) "Wait… A _what?_"

The trainers look at one another bewilderedly.

Brendan: "Hmm." (looks at Bruce Banner) "You've never even heard of a Cubone?"

Bruce Banner: "I've heard of a cue _ball_… and a _Q-tip_, but not a _Cubone_."

Lucas: "You don't even know what a Pokémon is… do you?"

Bruce Banner: (confused) "A 'Pokémon'? What's a… Pokémon?"

Lucas: "You're not from around here, are you?"

Bruce hangs his head down and says almost like he's in despair, "No. I'm not."

"Looks like we have a lot to talk about." Says Brendan.

A little while later, Lucas and Brendan are outside the door of the hotel where they stayed waiting for Banner. He comes out wearing the buttoned down shirt, brown pants, and brown shoes. They walk down the sidewalk; Banner still looking solemn. He looks at his surroundings to see various construction workers and their Pokémon cleaning up the mess and repairing the damage that he caused. They briefly stop to glare at him as he passes them by, then continue their work.

Lucas: "So, Mr. Banner, tell us a little bit about yourself."

Brendan: "And please… be honest."

Bruce Banner: "Alright. Let's see. Well, my full name is Robert Bruce Banner; I like going by my middle name because I hate my first."

Brendan: "Funny—you actually look like a 'Robert'."

Bruce glares at Brendan.

Brendan: "Uh. (chuckles sheepishly) continue."

Bruce Banner: "I never had a good childhood; my family was very dysfunctional. My father – and please take this as an understatement – treated me like crap: he bulled me, abused me, yelled, threatened, hit, and called me names."

Lucas: (sympathetically) "Oh man. We're so sorry, Mr. Banner."

Brendan: "No wonder you're so screwed up."

Lucas angrily slaps him on the back of his head for that insensitive remark.

Brendan: (rubbing the back of his head, annoyed) "Ow!"

Bruce Banner: "Anyway, it got so bad, that my mom tried to leave dad. When he found out (Bruce closes his eyes as if in shame), he killed her."

Brendan and Lucas gain shocked expressions after hearing the part of the story. They exchange glances after hearing that happening.

Bruce Banner: "After that happened and my dad got carried off to the crazy house, I stayed with my aunt until I was 18. Then, I graduated from college with a PHD in Nuclear Physics."

Brendan: "'Nuclear'?"

Bruce Banner: "Yes. Like radiation."

Lucas/Brendan: (alarmed) "'Radiation?!'"

Lucas: (apprehensive) "Uh, isn't that dangerous?"

Bruce Banner: "Don't worry – I kept my distance from it and I knew the safety precautions. Truth is, I was actually glad I got a job where I knew about this stuff."

Lucas: "What do you mean?"

Bruce Banner: "Well, when I was a teenager, I've always wanted to create my very own atomic bomb."

Brendan/Lucas: (apprehensive) "Oh boy."

Bruce Banner: "I tried to make one in the school's basement, but I got expelled because of that. After I got my degree, the military hired me. It was an uneasy compromise: they needed someone to build a bomb and I needed money. I didn't know the consequences of my actions… until that one day."

All three walk past the Pokémon Center; Bruce stops at the front door and watches from the window. He gets downcast as he sees various Pokémon that he (as the Hulk) battled before, including a Pupitar, laying on the floor beside a wall, wrapped in bandages. Their trainers are in there with them, tending to their injuries. Nurse joy is hectically running back and forth, carrying medical supplies. Back outside, Lucas places his hand on Banner's shoulder and nods to him to continue walking, not before he takes one last look at the Center.

Lucas persuades Bruce to continue the story. He says to him, "I remember that you stopped at 'until that one day.' What _was_ that one day? What _happened_ on that one day?"

"That one day." Said Bruce Banner "Was the day my life changed forever."

"Well. Go ahead." Said Brendan.

Bruce Banner: "I was testing a newly created bomb the military built that I designed. We were going to do it in the desert where no one was around. Me, the soldiers, and the other scientists where in a large bomb shelter so that we wouldn't be exposed to radiation from the fallout. After the bomb launched, I saw a young man – slightly older than you two – cycling through the desert testing site. Since I knew the missile already launched, I had to get him out of there as fast as I could before it reached the ground and detonated. I got out of the shelter to take the kid out of there. It was too late; the bomb went off. We both had to move fast to get to the shelter. I saved the kid, but I couldn't save myself. I was exposed to a massive amount of gamma radiation in the explosion."

Brendan/Lucas: (shocked gasps) "Whoa!"

Bruce Banner: "I know, but the strangest part was that I didn't shrivel up, burn, and die."

Lucas: "If this is radiation were talking about, then that amount of exposure should have killed you."

Bruce Banner: "I know, but it didn't. I actually thought I was lucky—lucky to be alive… until I transformed for the first time. And that was the start of my never-ending, everlasting war with the world."

Brendan: "Geez man. Dude, that is rough."

Bruce Banner: "More like devastating. Turning into the Hulk has ruined my life in more ways than one: I lost my job, my diploma, my credibility, my home, and my respect. I have to wonder through every town so I can have a place to stay, but that usually doesn't happen for very long because my name comes up on the news and the paper and I get kicked out immediately. I'm forced to sleep on the street or the alley and then I move on to the next town where it happens all over again; if not, I'll be in the forest and sleep next to a tree. But, every once in a while, there is something or someone that will make me angry and when I get angry… (Sigh) well, you just witnessed what happened to the town. For over 10 years, I've been a fugitive; on the run from the military who want to either kill me or use me as a weapon of mass destruction. For over 10 years, I've tried to cure my condition, but I don't have enough time before the militia find me and I don't have access to any equipment. Every day of my life since then has been a constant struggle. Being the Hulk has taken away everything I had…"

Bruce stops again and turns to his right to see a young happy couple, sitting on a picnic blanket in the park, teaching their toddler son how to walk.

Bruce Banner: "…and wanted."

The toddler walks wobbly to his mother. A Sentret appears and catches the baby when he stumbles backwards. They all laugh, with the mother picking up and holding her child and the dad petting the Scout Pokémon on its head. Bruce continues walking, feeling more gloomy.

Bruce Banner: "When I was captured, I was taken into solitary confinement for 3 years, give or take. After I served my sentence, I was lead to a portal that, and I was told, would take me to another world."

Brendan: "A portal?"

Lucas: "No way."

Bruce Banner: "I entered the portal and, long story short, it transferred me _here_."

Lucas: "That's why you don't recognize the names of even some of the most well-known Pokémon, or even the word 'Pokémon' at all – you're not only _not_ from any town or city in this region, you're not even from this _world_!"

Bruce Banner: "Exactly. And now I'm stuck here with no way to go back home."

Lucas and Brendan stop walking and give Banner sincere looks of worry and sympathy. They whisper amongst themselves, nod and smile, and run to catch up to Bruce.

Brendan: "Well, if you're gonna be here for a while, you're gonna hafta learn a few things."

Bruce Banner: "I do?"

Lucas: "Yes. We can teach you; tell you everything we know."

Bruce Banner: "Well, what can you guys tell me that _I_ already know?"

Brendan: "Well, for starters, Pokémon."

Lucas: "Yeah. We'll tell you a lot about them, Mr. Banner. Now, we're going to the next town. You're welcome to come join us."

Bruce Banner: "I don't know. Are you sure you want me to come?"

Brendan: "Well, you can't stay _here_."

Bruce Banner: "Good point."

The three of them walk out of the city, where they trek along the forest trail.

Lucas: "Don't you worry, Mr. Banner. With us by your side, you'll fit in in no time."

For the remainder of their journey, Lucas and Brendan show and teach Banner all there is to know about Pokémon and the Pokémon _world_; they watch Pokémon battles, talk about the different Pokémon types to Banner, observe and interact with wild Pokémon in their habitats (they even watch a Pokémon egg hatch), showing Banner the Pokédex and its functions, and even watch a Pokémon evolve. This experience helped peak Banner's curiosity even higher. One night, while camping, Lucas and Brendan are getting ready to go to sleep, with Bruce already fast asleep in his tent. They smile at him and laugh softly while exchanging looks as they both go into their tent and get some shuteye.


	10. Prepare for trouble

It's the middle of the day. Brendan, Bruce Banner, and Lucas are walking pleasantly on the trail. Brendan and Banner are talking, while Lucas looks at his Pokétch.

"Wow!" Said Bruce, intrigued by what Brendan was talking to him about. "I didn't know Pokémon had _subconscious_ abilities."

"They're very useful in battles." Said Brendan. "They don't activate unless they're attacked by a certain move, attacking, change in weather, or low health."

"I'm impressed! You guys seem to know your stuff!" Said Banner, fascinated.

"Well, thank you." Said Brendan proudly, but with a bit of humility. "But to tell you the truth, Mr. Banner, we still have a lot to learn."

"Hey guys," uttered Lucas to the two while looking at his Pokétch. "According to my Pokétch, the next town is another 300 yards away." Lucas looks and points straight ahead. "In that direction."

Brendan and Bruce Banner look at where Lucas is pointing; another town, but much more rural. Later, they arrive at the town, where there is no person in sight and the only sounds they could hear were the wind and the squeak of a bicycle.

Brendan: "Where is everybody? It's usually pretty busy in a town like this."

Bruce Banner: "Maybe the townsfolk saw the news. They must've fled when they saw me on the small screen."

Lucas: "Mr. Banner that hardly seems likely. If they _knew_ you would be _here_, they _would_ leave. Someone must've told them you were coming. But who? And how?"

Just then, the three see a man, mid-40s, wearing a cranberry red suit and a matching fedora, walking merrily in the middle of the street; it's Giovanni! They walk up to him, not recognizing or realizing it was the Team Rocket leader.

Lucas: "Excuse us, sir."

Giovanni: (stops walking, taking his hat off) "Yes?"

Lucas: "What happened to this town? Where is everybody?"

Giovanni: "Oh, everyone moved out of town because they were panicking about a 'monster'."

Bruce Banner: "Well, then why are _you_ here?"

Giovanni: "I came here after the evacuation… for _you_, Banner."

Bruce Banner: (confused, shocked) "What?"

Giovanni smirks and snaps his fingers. An explosion happens at two tall buildings between them; Bruce, Brendan, and Lucas get scared, but Giovanni doesn't even flinch. The three run back to the entrance, but are suddenly blocked by three Team Rocket grunts wearing gas masks.

"Leaving so soon?" said the first Rocket grunt.

"You're not going anywhere." Said the second Rocket grunt.

They gasp at the sight of them, then they turn back to Giovanni, with two more grunts putting a gas mask on him.

"What the heck are they doing?" said Lucas, frightened. "What's going on?"

"What's with the black-clad goons in the masks… and why are they putting one on you?" Brendan said to Giovanni.

"Why?" Giovanni said with utmost sincerity. "Why, my dear boy, they work for me."

Bruce Banner: (shocked) "What?"

Lucas: "This is a trap!"

Brendan: "No; it's an ambush!"

Giovanni: "However you see it depends on your opinion."

Bruce Banner: (angry) "Why, you son of a…"

Giovanni: (wagging his finger, singsong) "Ah, ah, ah. Temper, temper."

The grunts throw black, Pokéball-sized spheres at the trio. When they stop rolling, the spheres release black smoke, which quickly spreads out until it engulfs the three in a large, thick, black cloud.

Lucas: "Smoke ball grenades!" (Coughs)

Brendan: (Coughs) "What are we gonna do?!"

Lucas: "Cover our noses (Coughs) and mouths!"

The three of them do just that, but they still cough intensely. Bruce begins to notice that he is feeling woozy.

Bruce Banner: "I… feel… strange."

Lucas: "What? No. (Coughs) No. Don't get angry, Mr.… Banner. (Drowsily) Don't… get…"

Bruce Banner: (Drowsily) "I'm… not… angry… I'm… just…"

Bruce collapses. Lucas watches in shock.

Brendan: (yawns) "I'm… feel… ling… sleep…"

Brendan collapses as well. Lucas falls on his hands and knees, coughing, struggling to stay awake.

Lucas: (Groggily, looking at Brendan and Bruce) "Nooo…"

Fully succumbed to the sleeping effects of the smoke, he finally falls flat on the street with Brendan and Banner. Giovanni looks up in pleased expectation; a helicopter hovers down and blows away the smoke. It lands right between the Team Rocket leader with his cronies and Lucas, Brendan and Bruce Banner.

Giovanni: "Pick up the tall, skinny one!"

The three grunts blocking the way to the entrance pick Banner up and carry him to the chopper. They all take off their gas masks.

Team Rocket Grunt #3: "Sir, what about the kids?"

Giovanni: (looking at Lucas and Brendan, sleeping on the pavement) "Leave them. I have no use for them, but they did bring me what I need."

Giovanni and the two grunts board the chopper and they, Bruce Banner, and the other grunts take off.

* * *

Later, at the Team Rocket base, metal doors open as Giovanni enters a large room containing Banner held aloft and bound in metal restraints to a wall. The grunts are standing next to Bruce, either holding submachine guns or machine pistols. Team Rocket executive Ariana walks up to the boss.

Giovanni: "How is our new guest?"

Ariana: "On his best behavior. He hasn't made a peep since we brought him in."

Giovanni: "Because he knows what will happen if he tries to struggle. I got this handled, Ariana. You and the team prepare for the mission."

Ariana: "Yes, sir, Giovanni, sir."

She bows and leaves the room; the grunts march out and into the long hallway. She glances and smiles at Giovanni before the doors close. Giovanni walks up to Banner.

Giovanni: (pleasantly) "Hello, Bruce. How are you feeling? Comfortable?"

Bruce Banner: (sarcastically) "Hardly."

Giovanni: "Good."

Bruce Banner: "Where am I? Who are you?"

Giovanni: (stopping 2 feet across from Banner) "You are at Team Rocket headquarters. I am Giovanni, the leader and boss of Team Rocket."

Bruce Banner: "What do you want?"

Giovanni: "Why, _you_, of course, Bruce. I want to give you a job."

Bruce Banner: "What? Me? Why? How did you find me?"

Giovanni: "Ever since I saw you on television. I was intrigued when I saw you show off your inhuman prowess and raw, brute strength. I figured out that that's what we need for our team. My spies have been watching you for a couple of days, waiting for the moment you once again become the brute called the Hulk."

Bruce Banner: (frightened) "What!? No! No, no, no! You don't understand! I am very dangerous when I become him! You don't know what you've done or what you're doing taking me here! You have no idea what will happen to you or your…"

Giovanni: (lashes out) "I know full well based on what I saw! I didn't become leader of this organization by being stupid! Now tell me: how... do you... become the Hulk!?"

Bruce Banner: "No! I'm not going to turn into him! I'm not going to let him out!"

Giovanni: "Oh yes, you will. Whether you like it or not."


	11. Wet and Wild

Back in the city, Lucas and Brendan are just waking up.

"Oh, my head." Lucas groans and holds his forehead. "It feels like a Crawdaunt just used Crabhammer on my skull."

Brendan yawns and stretches, "I don't know about you, but that was the best sleep I've ever had in years."

Lucas swiftly looks around. "Hey, where's Banner?"

"Banner?" Brendan yawns, while rubbing his tired eyes and the back of his head. "He was right behind us when…" Brendan looks behind to see no one and nothing there. "Hey! Where _is_ Banner?" He gets up on his feet and looks around. "Banner!" He calls out. "Banner!"

Lucas: (stands up, to Brendan, sad) "He's gone."

Brendan: "Gone? How?"

Lucas: "He was kidnapped."

Brendan: "Kidnapped?"

Lucas: "Yes. By the man we encountered earlier – the one who set and led us into a trap. _He_ was the one who came in the town to warn everyone that Banner/Hulk would come this way so that if he became the green giant again, there would be less human casualties. The man _did_ say he had spies, watching us day and night; hidden in plain sight and in disguise, I suspect. So before we even entered the town, they must've contacted the man that we'd head there as our next destination."

Brendan: "O-kay, that's a good observation, but whoever that man was, he doesn't know what Banner can do or how powerful he is when he's his… other self."

Lucas: "I'm pretty sure he does. He probably saw the news, like everyone else, so he and his men set up the trap as soon as everybody in the city vacated. He wanted to stay so as to meet Bruce in person before he summoned his men to take Bruce away."

Brendan: "_But_ he needed to make sure Bruce didn't 'Hulk-out' or else it would start all over again."

Lucas: "Hence the smoke grenades… laced with sleeping powder."

Brendan: "So that they could abduct him _safely_."

Lucas: "Exactly. This man's plan was so very detailed; so methodically planned out and executed. But there was one obvious flaw."

Brendan: "What's that? Other than the explosions up there in the two towers."

Lucas: "He probably did that for theatrics. He didn't tell the people living here to come back after he and his lackeys took Banner away."

Brendan: "Yeah, you're right. How long have we been asleep?"

Lucas: (checks his Pokétch) "Two hours."

Brendan: "Two hours? Well, _someone_ must've come back by _now_."

The two suddenly hear a horn beeping. They turn around and see a fleet of cars and vans proceeding up the road. They move out of the way so that they don't get run over. On the sidewalk, they watch the vehicles pass by, with the drivers cheering loudly.

Brendan: (flabbergasted) "Man, (to Lucas) he is good!"

Lucas: (whispers) "We have to find Bruce Banner."

Brendan: "Why are you whispering?"

Lucas: "Because I don't want (points to the drivers and the civilians reentering the city, back to whispering) anyone else to know we're looking for him. They'll think we're crazy."

Brendan nods at this statement. He turns his head around to become aware of anyone that'll hear them. He and Lucas walk up the road, while speaking softly and quietly to each other.

Brendan: "OK, so how are we going to find him? We don't even know where they took him."

Lucas: "I don't think _he_ knows where they took him either."

Brendan: "Right. On account of we were asleep when this happened. But, why did they take him?"

Lucas: "Well, they must've wanted him for some reason. Whatever it was, I don't think it was for a good cause."

Brendan: "Why do you say that?"

Lucas: "Well, the man we met didn't seem too afraid to talk to – or look at – Bruce. It fact, I think he was _happy_ to see him."

Brendan: "They just met; We just met him."

Lucas: "I know that. I'm just saying that whoever that man was, he wanted to take Banner and use him for his own nefarious purposes."

Brendan: "That guy _did_ set the trap. He has evil written all over his face. But, I'm sure Banner will be fine. He can go green and crush that guy like a bug-type."

Lucas: "You heard what Banner said; he's too afraid to use his own power. If he does Hulk out, he'll not only crush that man and his lackeys, but everything else in his path."

Brendan: "But he _has_ to to escape. This way, we'll have an easier time finding him. A green guy in purple pants'll stick out like a sore thumb."

Lucas: (worried) "I hope you're right, Brendan. I truly hope your right."

* * *

Somewhere at an ocean, the Team Rocket helicopter is hovering 100 meters above it. Giovanni, three Team Rocket grunts (one of them being the pilot), and Bruce Banner, in metal shackles, are in the copter. One of the grunts is holding a tablet that shows a map of where they are; the red dots on the map signifies the living things in the ocean.

Team Rocket grunt #2: "I got an indication of five Gyarados – with one directly below us. We are at the right place… and spot."

Giovanni: (smirks satisfyingly) "Excellent."

The second grunt (a female) opens the door. Giovanni and the grunt holding the tablet grab Bruce by each arm and lead him to the edge of the doorway. A Gyarados raises its head above water and roars at the helicopter before it splashes and dives down. Bruce tries to back away in fear at the sight of the Atrocious Pokémon, but Giovanni and the grunt keep him still.

Bruce Banner: (frightened) "What… was… that!?"

Team Rocket grunt #4: "The local wildlife."

Team Rocket grunt #2: "Would you like to get a closer look?"

Bruce frantically struggles to get them to let go. He hits the grunt in the face with his shackles, but Giovanni puts his arm around Banner's neck and walks him back to the edge of the doorway. He says to him sardonically,

"Have a nice swim."

And pushes him off the chopper. Bruce starts tumbling and screaming in freefall. A Gyarados jumps out of the water to devour Bruce. Bruce's brown eyes suddenly turn green, soon after the Gyarados closes its jaws around him and falls back into the water.

Team Rocket grunt #2: (Clutching his nose, looking over the doorway after seeing Bruce get eaten by Gyarados, cynically) "Good riddance."

The Gyarados dives down. It stops when it feels something in its throat. It coughs and coughs until it spits out Hulk. The Hulk and Gyarados roar at each other. Gyarados swims at the Hulk in an attempt to eat him. Gyarados grabs Hulk by the jaws, but Mr. Green uses his strength to keep its mouth open. It and the Hulk plow through the water like a bullet train. Gyarados uses a Hydro Pump attack and blast the Hulk out of its mouth. Hulk is officially out of his element: he can't swim to attack Gyarados or dodge _its_ attacks. Gyarados charges at Hulk again; it chomps on him like last time, but Hulk punches between its eyes and it opens its mouth to release him. He then grabs its crest. The Gyarados swims swiftly and aggressively to get Hulk off its face; Hulk tightly holds onto the crest as Gyarados swims at high speed, almost like he's on a roller coaster. It passes a group of the 4 other Gyarados; they see Hulk, now on its first dorsal fin, and they go after them. Hulk suddenly loses his grip and is whisked around in the water. Once he stops, he is treading, still underwater, with now _five_ Gyarados circling him. Hulk roars and one of the Gyarados swims right toward him; it swims under Hulk, but jolly green hits its back and it howls in pain. Another does the same thing, but it swims over the Hulk, which grabs one of its barbels. He grabs the other barbel and moves to the top of its head where he uses the barbels he's holding like horse reins to control the Atrocious Pokémon's movements. The Gyarados he's riding on starts to dive down deep fast; the others follow. It does a barrel roll to get the Hulk off, but he holds on the barbels firmly. As they get close to the seafloor, Hulk gets on its head and pommels it twice until Gyarados faints and skids on the seafloor near a big underwater cave. Hulk jumps off, then looks behind to see the 4 other Gyarados barreling towards him. He leaps at them and uses a thunderclap that stuns them and knocks them out. He lands back down to roar at them as they sink down. As that happens, a pair of light blue, glowing eyes appear from inside the cave.

In the helicopter cabin, a sixth red dot suddenly appears on the grunt's tablet map.

Team Rocket grunt #2: "Sir, there appears to be another Pokémon down there that… that just appeared out of nowhere."

Giovanni: "It looks like 'Brucie' found a new playmate."

Suddenly, a Lugia rises from under the sea, with Hulk tightly squeezing its neck, right near the helicopter, where the Team Rocket boss and grunts stare in amazement at seeing the strongest one there is duking it out against a legendary. Lugia uses a Psychic attack to pry the Hulk of its neck. It flips on its back and grabs him with its wing-hands. It flies away from the helicopter; Giovanni watches and smirks. Lugia flips back into a normal flying position, still holding the Hulk in its wings. Hulk loosens Lugia's grip on him, climbs up one of its arms, and jumps and grabs the base of its neck to choke it. Lugia flies wildly while it screeches and suffocates. It then has an idea: it folds its wings and plates flat, lets out a mighty, assertive screech, and shoots straight up the sky.

The grunts watch this from the chopper using binoculars; they see Lugia (and Hulk) fly through and over the clouds.

Team Rocket grunt #4: "What's it doing?"

Giovanni: "Whatever it needs to do to get that Mankey off its back."

Team Rocket grunt #2: "If they go any higher, they'll be in other space."

Giovanni: "Not likely. Lugia will keep climbing until Hulk lets go."

Team Rocket grunt #4: "And what if he doesn't?"

Giovanni: "He will."

Team Rocket grunt #2: "How do you know that?"

Giovanni: "He'll lose oxygen before _it_ will."

Hulk loses his grip on Lugia's neck and falls, but not before he manages to grab its tail; Lugia keeps flying upwards—high speed, without stopping. Hulk fights through the wind turbulence and climbs up Lugia to get to its head. Meanwhile, Lugia starts getting tired and dizzy from the thin air and overexerting itself flying straight up; the thin air is starting to affect the Hulk too: he is panting heavily, but is still climbing. Lugia and Hulk both get covered in frost and the sky becomes darker around them. Hulk finally reaches Lugia's head; as he lifts his arms to strike a blow to the giant silver bird, he loses consciousness and fall off of Lugia, plummeting back towards earth. Lugia turns around to see Hulk falling. It shakes its head to get its mind straight and dives straight down right at the Hulk, like a guided missile. Lugia uses its move Aeroblast on the green goliath, accelerating his descent and crashing into the ocean with a thunderous splash; the part of the ocean that Hulk crash landed on was much more shallow—deep enough to submerge his feet. Hulk regains consciousness, gets back up on his feet, and looks up to see Lugia dive-bombing at him. Hulk roars irately and does a mighty vertical leap at Lugia, which charges an energy attack at him. Hulk's fist collides with the blast and the result is a shockwave so powerful, that the helicopter almost loses its stability in the air. Once the chopper gets steady again, Giovanni snatches the binoculars from one of his grunts to view the aftermath of the fight. At the ocean, Lugia is lying flat on its back, unconscious, eyes closed, groaning and moaning weakly in pain. Hulk is standing next to it, mad, but pitiful at its opponent. He jumps on Lugia's stomach, stomps on its chest, and roars into the sky. Watching from the helicopter, Giovanni smirks deviously.


	12. Mind over muscle

Somewhere at a grassland plain overlooked by a mountain, the Hulk is seen hurled from the mountain and crash lands in the plains; he skids on the dirt until he stops when his head hits a tree. He quickly gets up and roars viciously at something that is coming at his direction – a big sphere of blue energy. Inside the sphere, there is a silhouette of a humanoid shape with long feet and a tail; the sphere dissipates to reveal that that is Mewtwo! Mewtwo stops and hovers a considerable distance away from the green goliath as they stare each other down. Hulk roars,

"HULK SMASH BIG KITTY!"

And charges right at the Genetic Pokémon. Unmoved and composed, Mewtwo uses it's psychic powers to stop the Hulk in his tracks before he gets any closer; he [Mewtwo] lifts him [Hulk] up and sends him flying hundreds of feet away. Hulk leaps at Mewtwo to attack again, but he uses a psychic-type move to suspend him in midair and, just like before, flings him far away. Hulk is even more enraged, but now he has an idea – he digs his fingers into the ground around him, pulls out large chunks of rock even bigger than his fists and lobs them hard at Mewtwo. Mewtwo hovers deliberately towards the Hulk while using Counter to deflect the boulders back at him – at his face. As soon as they get close enough, Hulk leaps on Mewtwo to pummel him, but Counter's effect causes Mewtwo to retaliate. Hulk roars to show that he is really angry now and lifts his fists to smash. Mewtwo switches from Counter to Protect as soon as Hulk strikes. He keeps slamming the energy barrier dozens of times with his fist; as this goes on, Mewtwo starts to sweat—he's getting tired. Hulks continuous blows on the Protect shield, along with Mewtwo maintaining it using his psychic powers is draining his mental stamina and weakening his focus; the shield vanishes after a few more hard hits. Mewtwo collapses on his knees, panting heavily. The Hulk uppercuts him, which sends the Genetic Pokémon flying 1,000 feet before landing hard on the ground. Hulk leaps at Mewtwo's current location; Mewtwo, lying on the ground motionless, uses his psychic powers to fling the Hulk at the mountain before he lands. Hulk crashes into the mountain; he quickly gets back up. Back at the plains, so does Mewtwo, albeit painfully. He looks at the mountain and sees a huge boulder flying straight for him. With a few ounces of strength left, Mewtwo uses Psychic to push the huge rock in the opposite direction when it comes close to crushing him. Hulk leaps from the mountain, runs on the boulder in mid-air, and then leaps again at Mewtwo. His [Mewtwo] eyes widen and freezes still with fright as Hulk smacks him with both his [Hulk] fists while crash landing on him, with an explosion of a dust cloud. While the dust settles, Mewtwo crawls on his stomach – trembling, bruised, weak, and petrified – to get away from jade jaws so he doesn't have to fight him anymore. Hulk grabs Mewtwo's tail and smacks him against the ground half a dozen times; Hulk stops to look at the Genetic Pokémon being held upside down by his tail, then smacks him hard on the ground, which results in him laying lifelessly in a crater with his body scarred, battered, and bleeding, along with a shocked, wide eyed, gaped expression on his face. Hulk stomps on Mewtwo's chest; he lifts his head and shouts after feeling it, but groans and lowers it back down where his eyes and mouth close, with tears running down the sides of the former. Hulk roars into the sky, which echoes across the plains. After the reverberation dies down, he hears a faint shriek. Hulk turns around to know where it was coming from; he hears the shriek again, but it's louder. He turns to look at the sun, where he notices four bird-like silhouettes; one of them has a crest on its head. Hulk squints as they come into view; its Ho-Oh, Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno. Hulk then hears a roar; he looks straight ahead to see Suicune, Entei, and Raikou. En masse, they advance towards the Hulk.

"Monsters come." Angrily says Hulk, "Monsters… Hulk enemy. HULK SMASH!"

He dashes to attack them head on. He bunches and winds up his fist as he leaps at them and roars.


	13. Silver's lining

**Hey, guys. Just finished another semester in college, so now I have more time to upload more chapters. I thank you guys for waiting. For those who've read my fanfic since the beginning, you've been very patient.**

* * *

Somewhere at a beach, near the area of the "Hulk vs. Lugia" brawl, a pair of eyeglasses washes ashore; unfolded and with one of the lens cracked. Silver walks along the shoreline, until he stops right near the glasses and picks them up. He holds them up to his face, then lets out a small smile and laughs deviously under his breath.

At a town somewhere, Lucas and Brendan are reading a newspaper article with the title "HULK: THREAT OR MENACE TO POKÉMON WORLD?" on the front page as they're sitting on a bench outside a small store.

Lucas: (reading the article in the paper along with Brendan) "'…mercilessly attacking Regigigas. The ensuing threat of this man-beast is steadily escalating. People and their Pokémon are advised to find shelter and keep Pokémon in their Pokéballs at all times in case the one called 'Hulk' comes within one mile of any town or city. Caution must be notified.'"

Lucas stands up and angrily says, "Oh, this is ridiculous!" as he crumples the paper up in a ball and dumps it in the trashcan on the left side of the bench. He tramps away – scowling, hands dug deep in his pockets –in a fit of anger. After a beat, Brendan gets up and quickly follows his friend.

Brendan: (to Lucas) "Hey. Dude! Wait up! (Finally caught up to Lucas, concerned) Lucas. What's going on? What's wrong with you?"

Lucas: (ticked) "What's wrong with _me!?_ What's _wrong_ is that they're publicizing the Hulk in an even more negative light! It's bad enough Banner is stuck here in this world; now he has to be advertised as 'the most dangerous man in the world' and 'public enemy #1', on account of being tabloid fodder for the journalists and photographers; they just want someone – _anyone_ – who is so famous, or in this case _infamous_, to put on the paper when they are at their worst, that readers will want to read _more_ of them! It's a negative vacuum, that's for sure!"

Brendan: "Let's not forget its adding fuel to the fire."

Lucas: (angry) "I know, (woeful) but still…"

They stop walking. Lucas sits on the edge of the sidewalk, resting his head on his hands in sadness and worry. Brendan sits next to him.

Brendan: (putting his hand on Lucas' back, sympathetic) "Look, dude; take it easy. Don't be so hard on yourself. Getting angry over something someone else did or _is_ doing right now is not going to solve the problem."

Lucas: "Sorry. But… but Banner is our friend. The only reason I can think of why he's doing this is that he's not angry; he's afraid."

Brendan: "I know and it's okay. And don't worry; we're going to find him. I promise."

Lucas gives him a warm smile. "I'm sorry to interrupt this touching moment…" said a voice behind them. They stand back up and turn around to see Silver. "…but I hear you're looking for someone." Brendan asks suspiciously, "Who the heck are you?" "Brendan!" reprimanded Lucas, "I am so sorry. My friend is very quick to judge."

Brendan: "Because I got a good reason why."

Lucas slaps the back of Brendan's head hard.

Brendan: (rubbing the back of his head, annoyed) "Ow!"

Silver: "Anyway… who are you looking for?"

Lucas: "A friend of ours."

Brendan gets Lucas to turn around so that both their backs face the redheaded boy.

Brendan: (whispering) "What the heck are you doing?! We don't know who this guy is! We don't even know if we can trust him!"

Silver: (clearing his throat) "Ahem! You guys do know that I'm still right here, right?"

Brendan and Lucas quickly turn back around, forgetting that the person they're referring to is right behind them. They chuckle nervously and do awkward/anxious gestures. Silver is a little turned off by the two's sudden awkwardness.

Brendan/Lucas: (nervously) "Oh-ho-ho-ho-hoh. /No, no, no. /We were just…/ We didn't know…/ …talking to ourselves… /…you were behind us. / …about someone else. / Yeah, totally! /Totally!"

They put on embarrassed smiles and Silver became wide-eyed, but (almost) still stone-faced.

Silver: (uneasy, raises an eyebrow) "O… kay."

(Beat)

Silver: "Anyway… Now, if you two will excuse me, (he takes out Banner's glasses from his shirt pocket and holds them up to his face, Lucas immediately recognizes them) I have to go to an antique shop to sell some stuff for yen."

Lucas: (referring to the glasses) "Where did you get those?"

Silver: "Oh, these? I found them laying on the sidewalk as soon as I entered the town. I figured that since they didn't belong to nobody…"

Brendan: "We know who they belong to."

Silver: "Who?"

Brendan: "Our friend."

Brendan snatches the specs out from Silver's hands.

Silver: (crossing his arms, sighs) "Fine. Take them. It's not like they'll do you good in finding… whoever you're talking about."

Lucas and Brendan walk away, with Brendan looking back to give Silver a serious stare. Silver shrugs and turns around to walk in the other direction.

Silver: "Especially with Giovanni taking Banner to his hideout."

The two trainers stop dead in their tracks after Silver said the name "Banner". They look behind, turn around, and start to run towards him. Hearing them approach, Silver gets a look of satisfaction on his face, with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Brendan and Lucas finally catch up with him.

Lucas: "I can't believe it! You know who Banner is?"

Brendan: (suspicious) "And who took him. Hmmm."

Lucas: "How?"

Silver: "I met him at a diner in Wishcomb city. That was where – and _when_ – he started to go green."

Brendan: "You also said something about a hideout. _What_ hideout?"

Silver: "You mean where they took Banner to?"

Brendan/Lucas: "Yes."

Silver: "Well, you don't have to worry about a thing. I know where it is. Come with me and I'll take you there so you can save your friend."

Lucas: "Oh! That's great."

Brendan: "Hmm, I don't know..."

Lucas: (glaring at Brendan, sternly urging) "Brendan..."

Brendan: (sighs) "Oh, alright! Fine!"

The three walk together on the city's sidewalk in the direction out of the city. Silver is thinking in his mind,

"_(chuckles deviously) Oh, father. You have no idea of what you've just done." _


	14. Surrender now or prepare to fight

In a large, but dimly-lit room, an Entei is in a big metal cage, roaring ferociously and aggressively attacking (scratching and biting the bars, charging at the cage from all sides, using fire-type attacks) the cage to break free. The other legendary Pokémon are doing the same thing. At the very end of the room, there are three more cages, but they are bigger and they're empty.

Somewhere at a forest, there is a large, black building that resembles a warehouse with a capitalized, red, san-serif "r" on its gable, over an automatic steel garage door. The door lifts up and two Rocket grunts – a male and a female – in a jeep with the same "r" on the doors exits the building. Once it drives far enough away, Brendan, Lucas, and Silver peek out from the trees near the storage facility. They walk up to the front of the building and observe it, starting with the entrance.

"Well, dude." Said Brendan to Silver. "It looks like you were right on the money with this."

"Told ya." Smugly replied Silver.

The doors begin to slowly close.

"Come on!" said Lucas. "Hurry!"

Lucas and Brendan make a run for it to get inside before the door closes.

Brendan: "Come on, dude. (Looks behind) We gotta… (He stops running) Dude?"

He looks at where Silver was standing, but he's not there.

Brendan: (staggered) "Where the heck did he…"

Lucas: (gesturing and calling to Brendan) "Brendan! Move!"

Brendan: (looks at Lucas, regaining his focus) "Huh? Oh, right."

The two roll under the closing door, but Brendan's hat falls off; he reaches back to grab it just before the garage door fully closes, sealing them inside. Moments later, they are walking through the hallway of the HQ.

Brendan: "Okay, so we're in. Now what?"

Lucas: "We just need to find Banner. He's got to be around here somewhere."

Brendan: "And _how_ are we supposed to do _that?_"

Suddenly, they hear footsteps and voices coming from the left corner. Lucas looks and sees two grunts walking towards them. Luckily, they don't see them; they're talking to each other. Lucas begins to gasp since they're sitting ducks, but in an exasperated groan, he looks up at the ceiling; his face lights up.

Team Rocket grunt #5: "No way. You actually heard that?"

Team Rocket grunt #6: "Uh-huh. Yep."

Team Rocket grunt #5: "Get out."

Team Rocket grunt #6: "No, I'm serious. I actually heard this by accident. There's someone here who had a 'wham bam' with the boss."

Team Rocket grunt #5: "No doubt. Trying to get a promotion to rise up to the ranks."

Team Rocket grunt #6: "Yeah. (Chuckles) But you know what _I_ heard?"

Team Rocket grunt #5: "What? What else?"

Team Rocket grunt #6: "I heard that she had a…"

Lucas and Brendan got in the ceiling vents before the grunts could see them. They look through the vent grilles to see them pass by, then they crawl through in the direction the grunts came from. After a couple of minutes of crawling, they drop down from the ceiling to the control room. There, they see from the various monitors different rooms within the HQ.

"Come on, Banner." Lucas says while skimming through the different screens. "Where are you?"

"Lucas!" alerted Brendan. "Look!" Lucas looks to where his friend is pointing at - on one of the screens, they see Giovanni and 4 other grunts forcefully push Bruce Banner into a room.

Lucas: "There he is!"

Brendan: "And there he goes."

Lucas: "Hold on, Banner! We're coming!"

They turn to go out the door, but gasp when they see a grunt with an intense, crazed stare, arms crossed, and skinny frame blocking the exit.

Team Rocket CR grunt: "Not so fast, you too! You're not going anywhere."

Brendan: (scared) "_Oh, man. Busted!_"

Team Rocket CR grunt: "At least… (Takes out a condensed Pokéball) not without a fight."

He presses the button to convert it to its full size; Brendan and Lucas do the same with theirs.

Team Rocket CR grunt: (throws his Pokéball) "Go! Seviper!"

A Seviper comes out of the Pokéball. It hisses at the trainers.

Brendan: (grins) "_Now that's more like it!_ (Throws Pokéball) Go, Swampert!"

Lucas: (throws Pokéball) "I choose you, Infernape!"

The trainer's chosen Pokémon strike a pose.

Team Rocket CR grunt: "Seviper, use Wrap on that Infernape!"

Seviper wraps its entire body around Infernape, immobilizing him.

Team Rocket CR grunt: "Squeeze the life out of him!"

Lucas: "I don't think so! Big mistake! Infernape, use Flame Wheel!"

Team Rocket CR grunt: (shocked, realizing his mistake) "What?! No!"

Infernape engulfs itself in flame and Seviper shrieks in pain and let's go; the fang snake's scales are char burned from tail to nose.

Brendan: "Allow me to cool you down. Swampert, use Hydro Pump!"

Swampert sends a high pressure blast of water at the Fang Snake Pokémon and its trainer, pushing them out of the control room. Lucas, Brendan, and their Pokémon run out into the hallway to find the room where Team Rocket took Bruce. They accidentally encounter two more grunts. They send out a Scyther, a Crawdaunt, a Weavile, and an Ariados to the battle; Brendan sends out his Shiftry to join the others. The grunts manage to knock out the kids' Pokémon, as well as the other way around, except for Ariados.

"Hands above your heads!" said one of the grunts. "You two are coming with us."

Brendan and Lucas raise both their hands as high as they can. Brendan fearfully thinks to himself, _"OH, CRAP!"_


	15. Arceus-out attack

Despite doing this along with my part-time job and a day of writer's block, here it is!

* * *

In a separate room built almost like a lab – filled with computers and a portal gateway that's 20 ft. high, – the grunts put Bruce Banner, wearing nothing but the purple sweats Brendan gave him, on a metal table/gurney-like apparatus where he is splayed out and bound by metal restraints around his wrists and ankles. They raise and position the table so that he's laid out vertically and in front of the gateway.

"What are you doing to me, Giovanni?" said Bruce to Giovanni as he stands next to him. "What are you doing to me now?"

"Patience, Banner. Patience." said the Team Rocket Boss.

"I don't have any more patience… with you or your team." Bruce Banner irritably verbalizes, showing that he's had enough of doing their dirty work. "You know I will Hulk out and…"

"Save your strength, Bruce." Giovanni interrupts. "You're going to need it."

Giovanni walks to one of the computer technicians, checking on their progress.

Giovanni: "How are we doing?"

The tech's computer screen shows a bar, pie, and line graph, with the bars and the pie slices of the graphs changing size erratically, indicating the power levels and fluctuations of the portal's energy output.

Team Rocket computer technician: "The power fluctuations are becoming steady; we should be ready to activate the portal momentarily, sir."

Giovanni: "Excellent."

Banner, overhearing, gets more anxious. He struggles to break free from his restraints, but can't. Giovanni notices this and casually walks up to Banner.

Giovanni: (indifferent) "Banner, what are you doing?"

Bruce Banner: "You're not putting me into that portal."

Giovanni: "Who said anything about 'putting you _in'_ the portal? We're actually waiting for something on the other side to come to us."

Bruce Banner: "What are you talking about?"

Giovanni: (pointing to the gateway) "Out there, there is another world: a gateway to another dimension. In that dimension, there are Pokémon; not just any Pokémon, but ones that can control and bend the structure of our world's domain. These Pokémon can manipulate the fabric of space, time, and reality. These creatures created our continuum, but there is one that created the Pokémon world _itself_; one that created the _Pokémon_. This entity is one mankind have encountered and discussed for centuries. A legend turned into a myth… until now."

Giovanni and the rest (except Bruce) leave the room. The gateway turns on. It generates a swirling dark blue/purple vortex. This refers back to the dream Banner had weeks earlier.

Bruce Banner: "_The portal — it's just like the one in my dream. But… what does this mean?"_

A big, pointed yellow and white foot comes out of the portal. Bruce gets apprehensive. Out in the hallway, they go into the control room. Giovanni pushes a red button on the control panel and speaks through the microphone.

Giovanni: (from the loudspeaker) _"Bruce Banner, you are about to bear witness the most powerful Pokémon in the universe."_

As more of the creature comes through, everyone else in the room gasp in anticipation.

Giovanni: (from the loudspeaker) _"Ladies and gentlemen – and Bruce Banner – I would like to present… Arceus!"_

The Alpha Pokémon's entire body comes out through the portal. It raises its head triumphantly and lets out a bellowing screech. Arceus shifts his eyes and turns his head to wonder about its new surroundings. Its eyes focus on Bruce Banner; it leans in to get a closer look at him. Now, Banner gets more and more anxious as he fidgets to try to get out of his restraints.

Bruce Banner: (frightened) "Get away. Whatever you are, get away. Please. Leave me alone. Leave me alone! I don't want to hurt you. I don't… want… to hurt you!"

From the stress, Bruce begins to Hulk-out; his eyes turn green. In the control room, Giovanni looks at the screen that shows the room where Bruce and Arceus are. He sees Bruce transforming and flashes a sadistic grin. In mid-transformation, Bruce's restraints break apart. Arceus becomes surprised and curious in seeing a human change form. Hulk has fully transformed; he looks at Arceus and roars at it.

Giovanni: "Excellent."

In the lab room, Hulk grabs the apparatus that held him as Bruce and hurls it at the Alpha Pokémon… hard. When it makes contact, Arceus staggers back from the force of the impact, almost back into the portal. It regains its balance, puts on an aggressive stance and emits a deep, loud screech at its attacker. Arceus rears up and charges at the green giant. Hulk roars and lunges to punch Arceus' face, but it retaliates by using a Headbutt attack to knock him in the opposite direction and crash into some computers. Hulk quickly gets back up, now more enraged. He leaps at Arceus, but Arceus uses Hyper Voice to knock back jade jaws into a wall, then uses Thunder. Hulk is getting consistently electrocuted, but he gets back up on his feet and pushes through the attack. Arceus then switches to using a Fire Blast attack, right when Hulk leaps real close to its face. There is a miniature explosion as seen from the control room monitor. Giovanni, watching this, gets a transmission from his ear communicator. He presses it to turn it on.

Team Rocket Grunt #8: (from comm) _"Giovanni, sir?"_

Giovanni: (annoyed) _"What?"_

Team Rocket Grunt #8: (from comm) _"We found two boys wandering the facility."_

Giovanni: (surprised) _"What?!"_

Giovanni has a realization when he heard his subordinate mention "two boys".

Giovanni: (thinking) _"Two boys…"_

He has a flashback of meeting Brendan, Lucas, and Bruce at the city weeks ago:

_Lucas: "Excuse us, sir." _

_Giovanni: (stops walking, taking his hat off) "Yes?"_

* * *

_Lucas: "What's going on?" _

_Brendan: (to Giovanni) "What's with the black-clad goons in the masks… and why are they putting one on you?" _

_Giovanni: (with utmost sincerity) "Why? Why, my dear boy, they work for me."_

* * *

_Team Rocket Grunt #3: "Sir, what about the kids?"_

_Giovanni: (looking at Lucas and Brendan, sleeping on the pavement) "Leave them. I have no use for them, but they did bring me what I need."_

Back to the present…

Giovanni: (thinking; surprised, then angry) _"I don't BELIEVE IT! They must be here to rescue Banner! But _how_ did they find my BASE?!"_

Team Rocket Grunt #8: (from comm) _"What should I do with them, sir?"_

Giovanni: (thinking; angered) _"If I knew they would be a nuisance, I would've gotten them killed when I had the chance."_

Team Rocket Grunt #8: (from comm) _"Sir?"_

Giovanni: "Do whatever you want with them! I've come too far and waited too long to let anyone interfere with our plans."

Team Rocket Grunt #8: (from comm) _"Yes, sir."_

In the hallway in another part of the base, two grunts hold Brendan and Lucas each at gunpoint; the one with Lucas takes his finger off the communicator. Lucas curiously asks, "Who were you talking to?" The grunt hits the back of Lucas' head with the nozzle of his gun. "None of your business." He says. Lucas faintly hears a roar coming from a wall they walk through. He whispers to Brendan, "Did you hear that?" Brendan whispers back, "Yeah, I did."

Team Rocket Grunt #8: "What are you guys talking about?"

Lucas smiles and nods to Brendan; He responds by doing the same answer to his friend.

Lucas: (slyly) "None of your business."

The trainers step on their captor's foot. Once they get some distance between them, Lucas quickly releases his Luxray.

Team Rocket Grunt #9: (hopping while clutching his foot, ticked) "Why you little…"

Lucas: "Luxray, use Zap Cannon."

Lucas' Luxray: "LUUUXXX-RAAAAAY!"

Its attack electrifies the two grunts; they faint and are left with their skin and clothes blacked and burned. Lucas asks his Luxray to use its x-ray eyes to search the room where the Hulk is located. It scans the wall where it sees…

LUXRAY'S P.O.V: Hulk inside the lab landing flat on his back then getting back up again to leap straight towards something.

It glances slightly to the right.

LUXRAY'S P.O.V: Hulk has grabbed the Alpha Pokémon's neck in an attempt to choke it, but it uses Psychic to get the Hulk to let go and fling him away. Arceus then uses Extremespeed.

Lucas: "You found him?"

Lucas' Luxray: (nods) "Lux."

Lucas: "Good. Let's go!"

They run to find their friend. Back in the lab, Hulk is still fighting Arceus. It uses various attacks to try to knock the Hulk out, but mean green keeps getting madder and madder with every hit it takes. Hulk eventually hits Arceus multiple times. Arceus is getting so weak from the hits that it staggers wobbly to get itself standing straight. It uses Recover and then charges a Hyper Beam attack. It shoots the Hyper Beam right at Hulk, which sends it crashing to the door, then out of the room. Lucas, Brendan, and Luxray encounter the Hulk crashing into the wall, along with the door. Hulk runs back in, enraged. Lucas returns Luxray to its Pokéball and enters the room Hulk went into where they couldn't believe their eyes; they see Arceus duking it out with the jade giant.

Brendan: (flabbergasted, trembling) "Is th-t-t-t-t-that a-a…"

Brendan and Lucas pull out their Pokédexes to scan it.

"Arceus, the Alpha Pokémon. It is said to have lived before the universe existed, which it created using its 1000 arms. The plates in its body allow it to change into the elemental Pokémon type of its choice."

Brendan: (looks at his Pokédex, he and Lucas look at each other in disbelief) "No… way."

Lucas: (he and Brendan look at Hulk and Arceus fighting) "My gosh!"

Hulk grabs one of Arceus' legs and smacks it around the floor and walls.

Lucas: "This is why Giovanni wanted Bruce – or, more specifically, the Hulk: he wanted Banner's alter ego's strength to weaken the legendary Pokémon so that his team can capture them."

Brendan: "How did you know that?"

Lucas: "Think about it; when we saw Hulk fight back at Wishcomb, he didn't care about whether or not he was killing the Pokémon: he only did it to protect himself."

Brendan: "So what you're saying is that… he wouldn't attack the Pokémon…"

Lucas: "…unless _they_ attacked him _first_. Giovanni used Bruce Banner's fear of the Pokémon and 'condition' to his own personal longings. So when Bruce was hit by a Pokémon's move – legendary or otherwise…"

Brendan: "…he would transform against his will and retaliate."

Lucas: "Exactly!

Brendan: "Now, Hulk must think that _all_ Pokémon are evil."

Lucas: "But where _exactly_ are the legendries? _That's_ what worries me."

Arceus, leaning on the wall, weak and injured from continuously being smacked around, charges another Hyper Beam, but Hulk lands on and grabs it's neck, wildly firing it at a support beam, which nearly falls on Brendan and Lucas, but they move out of the way just in time. Arceus frighteningly fires a barrage of long-range attacks, like Flamethrower, Thunder, Hyper Voice, and Focus Blast on the walls and ceiling; Lucas and Brendan have to constantly run to dodge the falling debris. It then uses Giga Impact to break through the walls and ceiling and get the Hulk to let go. When that doesn't work, Arceus tries a different tactic: it uses Giga Drain on Hulk to weaken him, enough to have him loosen his grip, then uses Giga Impact again on the ceiling. The Hulk falls off of Arceus and it [Arceus] breaks through the ceiling, letting the blue sky and sunlight bleach the room. Arceus flies up out of the room high into the sky (approx. 500 ft.), where it briefly takes a look down to see Hulk's unconscious body lying on the ground. Lucas and Brendan run to Hulk's side.

Lucas: "Hulk. Hulk!"

Brendan: "Come on, big guy. Wake up!"

Hulk gets back up albeit woozily. He looks up the large hole in the ceiling to see Arceus hovering above and growls. Brendan cringes with fear.

Brendan: (frightened) "Hulk? B-b-banner? Let's not do anything hasty (chuckles nervously) now."

But Hulk doesn't listen. He leaps with all his might through the opening while Brendan and Lucas watch upward From below as Hulk makes his ascension.

Brendan: (sarcastically) "That went well."

Hulk lands on the roof outside where he roars at his adversary. Arceus charges an energy ball on the top of his head. Brendan squints to get a better look at what's happening.

Brendan: "What is Arceus doing?"

Arceus flings the ball of energy on its head high into the sky.

Lucas: (eyes widen in fear) "I think Arceus is going to end this fight… once and for all."

Arceus used its move Judgement; the ball of energy in the air explodes into multiple streaks of light that come down; one of them lands on the Hulk. The portal starts to react again; a claw like appendage come through. Another streak of light comes raining down on the boys where they are standing. They close their eyes, cringe, and brace for impact. Just then, a spherical green field of energy suddenly surrounds the trainers, protecting them from the energy comet. Lucas and Brendan open their eyes and are stunned by what happened. While they're grateful that their lives have been spared, Lucas wonders how the field came out of nowhere. They soon here a shrill, but deep, screech. They both turn around to look behind them and they see to their amazement – Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina; the creation trio. The field disappears as soon as the trainers see them.

Brendan: (in awe) "Oh my gosh! I can't _believe_ it!"

Lucas: "_I_ can. (Smiles) Thank you."

The creation trio nods at the trainers for their gratitude. They fly up and out the building and turn their attention to Hulk, standing in an aggressive/defensive stance. He growls,

"Hulk… smash… FLYING… MONSTERS!"

Hulk leaps at Arceus to tackle it; its momentum pushes both of them away from the building and Arceus manages to stay aloft. Dialga uses a Hyper Beam on the Hulk, but Hulk leaps off of Arceus before it hits and punched Dialga on the side of its face, causing it to faint and plummet back into the lab where it crash-lands on the portal, destroying it, and into a load bearing wall. Lucas and Brendan gasp at seeing a legendary Pokémon knocked out cold right before their eyes. They then look up to see the others using their attacks and flying away from the building.

Lucas: "This is ridiculous! We've gotta stop this battle before Hulk hurts the others!"

Brendan: "I don't think it's gonna matter."

Lucas: (in shock and disbelief) "What?"

Brendan: "Most of our Pokémon were injured from the fight in the hallway, and I don't think Vigoroth and Swampert would last doing a rematch with _him_."

Lucas: "I don't care! We've gotta find a way to stop this and we've got to do it now!"

Brendan: "How? How?!"

Dialga, regaining consciousness, lifts and shakes his head. Lucas suddenly gets an idea.

Lucas: "Dialga."

Brendan: (seeing Lucas running to Dialga) "Lucas, what are you doing?"

Lucas: "Dialga!"

Dialga turns its head to look at Lucas.

Lucas: "I need you to send the Hulk into the past – _10 minutes_ into the past."

Brendan: "What do you mean, Lucas?"

Lucas: "Dialga is a Pokémon that can control and travel through time. With his power, this means that he can help end this as soon as it began."

Dialga's eyes glow white. Outside, Hulk roars at Arceus, Palkia, and Giratina and they roar back. As Hulk leaps to attack, his body becomes a glowing, white silhouette and soon, he disappears. The three legendries look at each other in bewilderment.

Brendan: "Where the heck did he go?"

Lucas: "Not _where_ – _when._"

* * *

Oh, yeah! Merry Christmas, readers, and (for those of you that don't celebrate Christmas) Happy New Year!


	16. Make it double

_**10 minutes earlier—**_

In the lab room, Bruce Banner is on a metal table/gurney-like apparatus where he is splayed out and bound by metal restraints around his wrists and ankles. They raise and position the table so that he's laid out vertically and in front of the portal gateway.

"What are you doing to me, Giovanni?" said Bruce to Giovanni as he stands next to him. "What are you doing to me now?"

"Patience, Banner. Patience." said the Team Rocket Boss.

"I don't have any more patience… with you or your team." Bruce Banner irritably verbalizes, showing that he's had enough of doing their dirty work. "You know I will Hulk out and…"

"Save your strength, Bruce." Giovanni interrupts. "You're going to need it."

Giovanni walks to one of the computer technicians, checking on their progress.

Giovanni: "How are we doing?"

Team Rocket computer technician: "The power fluctuations are becoming steady; we should be ready to activate the portal momentarily, sir."

Giovanni: "Excellent."

Team Rocket Grunt #6: (From Giovanni's comm, panicking)_ "Sir. Sir! Giovanni, sir, can you hear me?!"_

Giovanni: (Pressing the comm in his ear, annoyed) "What… is it?!"

Team Rocket Grunt #6: _"THE HULK IS IN THE BASE! I REPEAT, THE HULK IS IN THE BASE!"_

Everyone in the room — the computer scientists, the Team Rocket lackeys — get a shocked look on their faces; more so Bruce and Giovanni. They all look at Bruce Banner, but Bruce turns his head side-to-side to all of them, appearing just as bewildered.

Giovanni: "What!? That's impossible! Banner is right-"

From the comms, Giovanni and the rest can hear roars, Pokémon cries, and shouts of panic. The boss' eyes widen in shock; his mouth wide agape. Banner starts to shake in horror and he says with a mix of worry, concern, and regret in his voice.

"No."

Giovanni has a spaced-out look in his face. He slowly takes his finger off his comm and puts his hand back down to his side. His voice trembles when he says softly to himself,

"No."

The lab door automatically opens. Everyone turns to face the doorway (except Bruce, who's positioned facing _away_ from it) and gasp when they see the Hulk standing in the hallway outside the room facing the Team Rocket leader and his villainous followers. He takes a step in the lab and almost everyone gasps and takes a step back. One of the grunts grabs a Pokéball strapped to his belt, but Giovanni stops him when he tries to throw it. The grunt puts the Pokéball back on his belt. Hulk walks in the room and looks around, while Team Rocket and Bruce start to get anxious of what Hulk will do next. Hulk says almost curiously,

"Hulk… remember."

He then has a flashback of him attacking and _being_ attacked by Arceus and the other legendary Pokémon in and outside the lab room. Bruce is busy trying to get unstrapped as Hulk walks by him, not even bothering to glance to his left. The Team Rocket computer scientists and minions slowly and fearfully move towards the door so that they can bolt out of there as fast as they can.

Team Rocket Grunt: (to Giovanni) "Sir, can we please get out of here?"

Giovanni: (gritting teeth) "Not yet."

Bruce is still busy trying to loosen the restraints. He unexpectedly sneezes. Hulk looks behind him and sees Bruce Banner strapped to the gurney. This is the first time Bruce Banner and the Hulk are meeting each other face-to-face.

Hulk: "Banner…"

Bruce Banner: (frightened) _"Oh my god. I can't believe it. How can this be?"_

Hulk roars and picks up the gurney Bruce is strapped to and throws it through the portal gateway, crashing Bruce into the wall.

Team Rocket Grunt: (to Giovanni, Apprehensively) "Now?"

Giovanni: "Now."

Now's their chance; they run like hell out the room. Hulk turns to see them leave, but turns his attention back to Bruce when he starts groaning in pain. The impact broke the gurney Bruce was bound to; he crawls out of the apparatus and onto the ground. He grabs the wall for stability to pull himself up and stand. As soon as he does, Hulk grabs Banner by the throat and pins him to the wall.

Hulk: (intimidatingly) "Hulk hate puny Banner. Banner weak. Hulk _SMASH_ puny Banner!"

Hulk squeezes Bruce's neck; Banner starts to choke and in his anxiety, his eyes turn green. Bruce kicks him halfway across the room. As soon as he gets up, he sees Bruce transform right before his eyes; Banner is in pain, he turns green, and he becomes taller and muscular until he looks like… well, _him_. Hulk couldn't believe his eyes; he is starting to understand that he and Bruce Banner are the same person. He says to his past self, almost sounding flabbergasted,

"Banner… Hulk?"

The past Hulk lunges at his future counterpart without hesitation and punches him through the wall. Future Hulk starts to get angry and hits him (well, his past self) back, sending him flying across the room.

(Past) Hulk: "HULK SMASH!"

The two Hulks roar at and (try to) stare each other down. They then leap up to attack. In the hallway, Giovanni and the rest of the people in the room are running to the exit. Giovanni turns on his comm to tell everyone in the facility to evacuate immediately, including the grunts holding Lucas and Brendan hostage. At first, the grunts are confused as to why they're evacuating the building without an explanation. They then hear Hulk's roar, crumbling concrete and clanging metal. The Hulks crash through the side of the wall right in front of them and continue brawling. The Team Rocket grunts push the kids down and they turn around to run away in the opposite direction, panicking and whimpering, and then screaming.

Team Rocket Grunt #7/8: "Oh, forget this!/He's your problem now!"

The trainers get up and observe "two" green giants duking it out on each other. One of the Hulks slam the other through four rows of walls; the other Hulk charges after him.

Brendan: (confused) "Uh… what the heck just happened?"

Alarms blare from all around the building. Lucas and Brendan are disoriented by what's happening, then they feel a small earthquake. They look around and see the walls starting to crack; part of the wall above them break apart into fragments. The trainers cover themselves up from the falling debris. Outside the building, Giovanni and company arrive at a large field as they exit the forest where there are four helicopters on their helipads.

Team Rocket Grunt: (getting into the helicopter) "With those two together, they can demolish the whole building in fifteen minutes – ten tops!"

Giovanni: "Then let's get a move on!"

Team Rocket Grunt: "Yes, sir!"

Everyone gets into the helicopters and they take off. Giovanni can only watch from the door window as his facility starts to crumble and explode from the inside out. He looks away from it, then he closes his eyes and hangs his head in shame.

BINOCULAR P.O.V: Looking at the mini squadron of helicopters flying away, then looks at the Team Rocket HQ itself – now in rubble and smoldering with smoke billowing up.

It's Silver! He is looking at this all (with binoculars) from far away: standing on a cliff overlooking the (former) Team Rocket HQ.

Silver: (smirking) "Well, well, well, dad, it looks like another one of you plans got blown up in smoke." (Puts down the binoculars) "I better get a closer look."

**_5 minutes later—_**

Hulk suddenly appears from a bright, white silhouette in the (now destroyed) lab. Hulk walks aimlessly in the room, trying to figure out what happened. A voice – a familiar voice – says, "Hey, Hulk! You did it!" Hulk turns around to who said that; he sees Lucas and Brendan, but he's mainly focused on the Legendary Pokémon behind them: Entei, Suicune, Raikou, Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, Regirock, Registeel, Regice, Regigigas, Mewtwo, Mew, Jirachi, Celebi, Ho-Oh, Deoxys, Lugia, Uxie, Azelf, Mespirit, Rayquaza, Groudon, Kyogre, Heatran, Cresselia, Phione, Manaphy, Shaymin, Arceus, Latios, Latias, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. Hulk soon becomes incensed when he sees them.

Hulk: "Monsters… Hulk… enemy."

Lucas: (concerned) "Uh-oh."

Brendan: (concerned) "Not good."

Hulk roars and charges at them to attack. Darkrai intangibly rises up from the ground in front of the group. It uses Dark Void on Hulk that knocks it out immediately. Hulks falls, but because of his momentum from running, he skids until he (literally) stops right at Brendan and Lucas' feet. They both look down at Hulk snoozing and then glance at each other.

Brendan: "Huh. Well, that sure made things easier."


	17. Heart of Silver

**Moments later—**

Among the ruins of what use to be the Team Rocket Headquarters, someone walks – almost wandering – through the remains of the base. It's Silver! He smiles and hums while seeing the wreckage around him, until he stops and looks to his left when he sees something moving in a pile of wreckage and hears a woman groaning and grunting. She manages to muster enough strength to lift some broken boards of concrete and metal away from her upper body; the rest from the waist down is still under the debris. The woman is Ariana. See didn't get out in time before the building collapsed. Silver walks up to Ariana and crouches down so that he can talk to her without her straining to look up. Silver get a small, mischievous smile out on his face.

Silver: "Hello, mom."

Ariana: (surprised) "Silver!? What are you doing here?"

Silver: "I was just taking a leisurely stroll when I—"

Ariana: "Save it! I'm not in the mood!"

Silver: (stands back up, puts hands in pockets, sighs dejectedly) "Fine. I wanted to pay you a visit."

Ariana: "Well, you came at a… (Straining, trying to pull herself out of the wreckage) really… bad… time."

Silver smiles and laughs softly under his breath.

Ariana: (aggravated) "What are you doing standing around? Aren't you gonna help me!?"

Silver: (shrugs) "No. I was just leaving. Just wanted to say hello." (Turns around and walks away) "And now… goodbye." (Waves goodbye)

Ariana: (upset) "'Goodbye'? What!? No. No, no, no, no, no. Honey, you can't leave me here! I have about 6 tons of plaster and steel crushing my butt and legs and you're just going to leave me here?!"

Silver: (indifferent) "Yep."

Ariana: "I'm your mother; you're my son! My own flesh and blood! I brought you into this world and I'll take you out of it if I have to! If I could get up and walk, I'd give you such a spanking! One day – _one day_, mister, you'll look back on your life and when you remember this day, you… will… regret… abandoning me to let me die. After all that I did for you when you were born, you're just gonna turn your back on me and go!?"

Silver: (indifferent, distant) "Uh-huh."

Ariana: "Well, _nooo_ way! You get right back here, mister! I MEAN IT!"

Silver stops walking when he heard the demanding roar of a shout from his "mother". He rolls his eyes up and sighs – even though he didn't want to, he didn't want to leave his mom stuck this way. So he walks back to her to move the debris off of her until her legs were free and she could stand again. Ariana hugs Silver tightly for getting her out of the remains of the base… then slaps him hard for almost leaving her. "For some reason, I definitely deserved that." Said Silver rubbing his smacked, bruised cheek. "Yeah. You did." Retorted Ariana, with arms crossed and with an ashamed/crossed look at him.

Silver: "So tell me, mother – how did this happen?"

Ariana: "Sorry, sweetie – that's classified."

Silver: "Well, what _can_ you tell me that's _not_? That Hulk tore this place down to the ground?"

Ariana's eyes widen with surprise that her son had knowledge about what happened and who caused it. Silver's expression turns cold as his mother gets that "I can't believe it" look.

Ariana: "How… do you know?"

Silver: (Closes his eyes, lowers his head, chuckles) "Because… I lead him to you. (Slowly opens his eyes to show his malicious stare) _All_ of you."

Ariana: "What?"

Silver: "I saw him when he first changed in the mountains _and_ in the forest. So when he was going into Wishcomb city, I got a head start so I could beat him there—what a coincidence that he would stop at the nearest place he could find with food and water and _I_ _happened_ to be there – as a friendly customer. He looked like he hadn't eaten for weeks. I poisoned his cup of joe when he wasn't looking, hoping that his form would be triggered as a defense mechanism. After he transformed, I kept my distance from him for a while, especially when he made friends with a couple of strangers; but at the same time, I followed him – watched him – by hiding in plain sight. When he was captured, I took a step back, knowing that dad would take him to do his dirty work. It _did_ take me a few days to track his friends and persuade them to come with and lead them _here_. All _I_ had to do was sit back, relax, and enjoy the show."

Ariana: "I can't believe it. You were involved with the Wishcomb incident _and_ the boys breaking into the base?"

Silver: (smugly) "That's right."

(Beat)

Silver: "Mother, there are much bigger things that are about to happen in the Pokémon world. Things that you will not realize… (puts his hand on her shoulder) …until it's too late."

Ariana: (sweeps her son's hand off her shoulder) "After what I just heard about the events that occurred, why I should I believe you?"

Silver: "You don't have to believe me, mom; fact is, you never will." (He walks away) "All you have to know is that this is just the beginning."

Silver starts to chuckle louder as his pace starts to quicken. As he laughs, he starts running, then he glows in a multicolored light. He jumps in the air; when he does, he changes into a Murkrow – in shape, size, and color – and flies away, all while laughing with sheer malice and delight.


	18. We have to say goodbye

Bruce, now wearing a dark blue hoodie, jeans, and sneakers, is sleeping on his side – snoring quietly. He starts to wake up; he flips on his back, groaning groggily, and opens his eyes. When he does so, he sees a clear, light blue sky with big, puffy clouds moving over his head. He sits up, rubs his eyes, yawns, and stretches.

"Well, look who's up." Banner heard a familiar voice. He turns to his right and down to see Brendan next to him – laying on his back, legs crossed, head resting on his hands – just chill and calm.

Brendan: "How was your nap, sleepyhead?"

Bruce Banner: (groggy) "Uh. It was uh… uh… great."

Brendan: "That's cool."

Bruce Banner: (Groans, rubs between his eyes) "What the heck happened to me? How long have I been asleep?"

Brendan: (Stands up) "For about an hour and a half. During that time, we got you some new clothes."

Bruce looks down to feel and examine his new attire. He then hears some flapping on his left side. Lucas rises up from under the clouds and waves at Bruce.

"Hi, Mr. Banner!" Lucas said. Bruce nervously chuckles and waves back.

"Maybe I'm still asleep." Bruce dazedly says. "Maybe I'm still dreaming." Then a small cloud collides with Banner's face, covering his entire head. Brendan laughs.

"Don't worry, Mr. Banner." Brendan reassures him. "You're not asleep – you _did_ just wake up. And this isn't a dream, although it feels like it is."

Bruce feels something rumbling under his feet. He shakes the cloud off his face.

BRUCE BANNER'S P.O.V: Lugia's staring back at him and gives off a shriek.

Bruce screams and stumbles back, almost slipping off and falling, but Brendan catches him and calms him down. Lucas is revealed to be standing on a Moltres as it rises up over the clouds. He moves to its neck to sit on it – to ride it.

Lucas: "Just relax, Banner, and enjoy the ride."

Brendan: "And whatever you do, don't look down."

Bruce looks down to see that they're flying over fields and wide-open plains; he sees a heard of running Tauros and a Rapidash nuzzling a Ponyta. Bruce isn't scared in the slightest, but amazed. Calm. Free. They fly over a pond, where he sees Goldeen and Seaking jumping out and back in the water, with various other Water-type Pokémon playing. He also sees a man and his son on a small boat, fishing – the boy reels in a Magikarp and the dad cheers. When they fly over a park, he sees a Pokémon battle taking place. Bruce starts to laugh a little, then he sees a flock of Pidgey and Starly flying right next to him. Now with a smile on his face and in his heart, plus with the wind whispering in his ear, Bruce closes his eyes and slowly lifts his arms straight out, like _he's_ flying, and starts to laugh uproariously.

Bruce Banner: "So... (to Lucas) Where are they taking us?"

Lucas: "Back to where it all started."

The clouds start to dissipate behind them – Arceus, Ho-Oh, Rayquaza, Zapdos, Articuno, Giratina, Dialga, and Palkia are flying among them.

Brendan: "Hey! Look, guys – there it is! We're almost there!

Banner looks ahead and sees the mountain plateau – the location where he first got transported into the Pokémon world. They land on the path, as the trainers and Bruce depart from their rides.

Bruce Banner: "Wow! That was amazing! But why did they bring us here?"

Lucas: "To send you home."

Bruce Banner: (Sighs dejectedly) "Look, kids, I appreciate all that you've done for me. Really, I do. But… there is no way I can go home. The portal is gone – gone… forever."

Lucas: "Not necessarily. I asked Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina if they could sense any residual energy from the portal that brought you here. And they said yes. They can use their powers to open it again from our world, which means-"

Brendan: "Which means you can go home again!"

Bruce's face lights up upon hearing this. Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina use their signature attacks simultaneously on the spot where the portal disappeared.

Bruce Banner: "Wow. I… (Sigh) I can't believe this is it. Seems just like yesterday when I running for my life from something that I never heard of. Now… (Pats Arceus' arm, Arceus responds with a bellow and gently brushes his face with Bruce's, Bruce laughs) Now, I'm not afraid of them anymore. I have no need to. These creatures... (he forgets that some of the legendarys are behind them) You! Sorry! I-I-I mean Pokémon are much… much more than creatures. You live and breathe like humans. You live _with_ humans. _Among_ humans. Because… you're our friends."

The portal appears. Bruce grins with elation – he finally going back home at last. His expression turns from joy to woe as he looks back at Brendan and Lucas. He knows that if he enters the portal, he'll be back home, but the downside is he'll never be able to see them again.

Bruce Banner: "Well boys… I guess… this is goodbye."

Lucas: "Yeah."

Bruce Banner: "I'm really gonna miss you, guys."

Lucas: "We're gonna miss you, too, Bruce."

Brendan: "We sure had quite an adventure! Just the three of us, didn't we?"

Bruce Banner/Lucas: "Yeah/We did/I'll say."

Bruce Banner: "But I wanna thank you guys for helping me. I don't think anyone's ever done that for me in a while."

Lucas: "Hey, no problem."

Brendan: "Just remember: if you're dealing with a situation that's too big for you, don't handle it on your own. You got friends to help you; they'll be there for you… no matter what."

Bruce Banner: "Like you."

All three get into a group hug. After they're done, Brendan puts Bruce's glasses back on. Bruce gets on Arceus' back and lifts him up the mountaintop to reach the portal. Bruce waves goodbye to the trainers, with a smile and tears running down his cheeks; Brendan and Lucas wave back. Arceus get to the top of the mountain and positions itself to gets level with the portal. Bruce takes one last heartfelt glance at Lucas and Brendan.

Bruce Banner: _'Thank you, guys. Thank you… for everything.'_

Then he jumps into the portal and afterwards… it closes.


	19. Hulk Smash BACK!

In the room that sent Bruce to the Pokémon world. No one is here – it's almost abandoned. The portal gateway suddenly activates on its own; the vortex appears and Bruce comes shooting out of it, rolling down on the floor as he lands. After he finally stops, he gets back up, and rubs his head.

"I have _got_ to work on my reentries."

He looks around the room and starts to smile.

"But… I'm back. (Chuckles softly) I'm home. I'm home!"

Though he smiles at returning to his world, his excitement slowly dissipates as he notices that no one is there.

"Where is everybody?"

He walks to the door, while turning left and right, hollering, "Hello?"

He opens the door to get out of the room and walks through a metal, structured hallway. "Hello?" he calls again. He turns to see a janitor – old, short, and balding – whistling while mopping. Outside, somewhere in a desert, a slanted, metal door is on top of a pile of rocks. The door opens and Bruce peeks through, to see if anyone else is there. Bruce comes crawling out and carefully tries to tread on the pile of rocks, but slips off. He gets back up to dust himself off and observes his surroundings: a barren, dry plain with cactuses, tumbleweeds, golden-yellow, dry dirt and rocks, with the hot sun beaming down. Banner has been in an underground government facility – more specifically, jail for his actions. Now that he was a free man once again, he took a deep breath and trudged forward, all while contemplating,

"_This is so strange. Where is everybody? I don't think – I doubt that they were waiting for me to come back. It's not like they'd give me a 'Welcome Home' party. They probably don't even know I came back. They probably didn't know I _would _come back. (Sighs) Looks like I'm back to where I started."_

Bruce Banner stops at the edge of a winding road and flips the hood up to cover his head. Suddenly, he hears a small explosion. He looks to see where it came from and notices several fires and smoke coming from a town miles away from where he is. In that said town, people are running and screaming in a panic as Abomination is destroying everything in sight. Cops and soldiers are shooting him with various types of firearms – including a rocket launcher – while people evacuate the city. Abomination pounds the ground which sends a shockwave that knocks them away. Two camo Humvees, copters, and a tank enter the town to shoot down the gamma-irradiated mutant. Abomination roars. He grabs a car and chucks it at one of the copters; it crashes on the roof of one of the buildings. Two soldiers carry one with a broken leg out of the street. General Ross is in the tank, talking with the driver.

Tank driver: "Sir, our men are getting killed out there! We've got to pull out! We can't take this anymore!"

General Ross: "We can and we will! That's an order – and I'm certainly not getting help from that eyepatch-wearing jerk."

Tank driver: (groans) "We need a miracle."

Everyone from inside the tank start to feel an earthquake; from outside, it wasn't an earthquake: Abomination is lifting the tank right over his head. He growls and laughs deeply as he gets ready to throw it – with the General and the rest in it. Just then, he hears a voice.

"Hey!"

He turns to his right to see Bruce Banner a few blocks away, lowering his hood down to show his face, with an expression that said 'enough is enough'. Abomination puts the tank down; the soldiers in there are a bit disoriented and hurt.

Abomination: "Banner…"

General Ross: "Everyone okay?" (They all agree)

Soldier in tank: "What was that?"

Ross opens the hatch to get out and see. To his surprise, he sees…

General Ross: (flabbergasted) "Banner!?"

Bruce Banner: (to General Ross) "General." (To Abomination) "Blonsky – long time, no punch."

Abomination: "Don't forget – you also bit my ear!"

Bruce Banner: "I see you've kept yourself busy while I was gone. You really need to get a new hobby."

Abomination: "I've been building up my strength so that I can finally beat you."

Bruce Banner: (cynically) "I was afraid you were going to say that."

Bruce takes his glasses off and looks at them for a moment…

"_I needed a new pair anyway."_

…then throws them aside.

Bruce Banner: "General, now might be a good time to retreat."

General Ross: "You heard him, men. Let's move out!"

The soldiers retreat either on foot or in the Humvees and the helicopter fries away from the area.

General Ross: "Oh, and Bruce…"

(Beat)

General Ross: "Its… good to have you back."

Bruce smiles. Ross gets back in the tank and closes the hatch. The tank is moving out.

Bruce Banner: "It's good to _be_ back, General." (Eyes turn green, smiles) "_It's good to _be_ back._"

Abomination roars and runs to attack Bruce, who Hulks out and roars back. They jump up to punch one another.


End file.
